It's The Small Things
by lady-warrioress
Summary: After failing to stop a murder Rorschach takes on the responsibility of taking care of the victim's child. Unfortunately the forces behind the child's mother's murder have taken an interest in her as well leading to a downward spiral of events.
1. Chapter 1

_Night. Quiet. Too quite for a city such as this. Something unpleasant is going to happen tonight. Something-_

Rorschach looked up from his journal at the sound of a distant scream. It was carried on the wind, which had kicked up as a summer thunderstorm had blown in, unnoticed by most until the first drops escaped the pregnant clouds and plopped quietly on the concrete roof and the material of his hat.

 _Trouble_. Another scum bag was out and about causing mayhem in the city below him. The same, it was always the same. The evil of the world never took time off, it was always active, during the day and during the night but it was easier to stop it when the lights went out, safer. Nobody would be able to identify him during the night or follow him.

There was no point dwelling on it right then, somebody was in trouble and he would prevent a murder if he could help it. Pocketing the journal he walked to the edge of the roof and jumped.

...

The woman gripped her daughter's hand as she dashed down the rain soaked streets. The girl stumbled a few times, having a hard time keeping up with her mother's longer strides. She didn't know why her mother was running so fast but it must be something bad, she wanted to look over her shoulder to see if they were being followed but something told her it would be a very bad idea. Young as she was she could still understand the concept of danger and the fact she and her mother were in some kind of it.

Her mother suddenly turned, yanking her daughter into an alley. The alley was long and seemed to go on forever and the mother looked toward the end and to the way they came, nervously. She knew they wouldn't make it. Not both of them and there was no way she would allow her child to be left behind. But it didn't matter as they neared the other end she saw there was nothing there to greet them but a brick wall.

"Mommy?" the little girl asked, looking up at her with worried eyes. What was going on? Were they in trouble?

"Honey," the mother said suddenly, kneeling down to her daughter's eye level. She placed her hands on her shoulder's." I want you to hide."

"Why?" the girl asked.

"Just... just trust me okay?" she kissed the little girl and hugged her to her chest. "everything will be okay, I promise."

The girl nodded and ran further down the alley, as far as she could go. "Good girl," the woman whispered, watching her daughter's figure hide behind a large dumpster. "Keep quiet, don't come out until it's safe..." then she turned to face their pursuers.

A moment later three men dressed in suits came up on her. "Nowhere to go now, Lydia," the leader, a man in a dark blue suit said, walking toward her.

"What do you want?" Lydia demanded, backing up a step. "Why are you doing this?"

"You know why," the man said, putting on hand in the pocket of his pants. "You got the letter, it explained exactly what we wanted."

"I already paid that off!" she exclaimed. "please. You've already got all of your money. I know it took so long but you can't do this. You've already taken my husband from me!"

"Well you know, business is business." the men came closer. "Your husband obviously forgot to tell you about the interest."

Her eyes widened. "What interest?"

The man smirked, standing right in front of her now. "So he didn't. Let me explain; the longer he took to pay off the loan the more interest builds up. Of course it took a long time to pay it back so..." he put up a finger. "it's almost as much as the loan itself. But the big man is willing to forget about it." he grabbed her face. "Provided you come to work for him."

The mother slapped him across the face. "No!" she exclaimed.

He shrugged, unfazed. "Suit yourself," he turned away from her. "Your funeral." he walked past the other two men. "You know what to do..."

They smiled wickedly and walked toward her, one of them pulling a gun out of the inner lining of their coat pocket. She took another step back, though she knew there was nothing she could do to keep them from hurting her. She braced herself, knowing the end was about to come.

"Now hold still," the thug said. "This will be all over in a minute."

"For you." a cold emotionless voice spoke up behind them.

The three thugs all looked over their shoulders as one person. Behind them stood a man in a tattered trench coat, fedora and a white mask with black markings that seemed to move on their own accord.

"That's Rorschach!" the one thug exclaimed, fear creeping into his voice.

Theier leader seemed to be unfazed with this revoluation. "Who cares," he snapped, whipping out a gun. "Shoot him!"

The thugs aimed their guns and fired the same moment as Rorschach rushed them. The thugs' aim was very off so they missed him by a mile allowing him to reach the first thug and plant an uppercut on his chin so hard that it send the man flying into the air.

The other thug let out a yelp when his friend slammed hard into the ground with a disgusting squashing sound and the man in the mask turned to him with a low grunt. He fired a round that missed as Rorschach charged toward him without even giving it a second thought. He went down just as easily and now only the leader was left.

"Alone now," Rorschach said, turning to him and putting his hands in his coat pockets. "Just you and me. Odds are not in your favor."

The man backed away but he smirked. "You came down here to stop a murder," he said raising his gun. "Too bad you're too late!"

Je fired.

Rorschach flinched as if to avoid being hit but he hadn't been the target. He heard a grunt behind him then the sound of a body hitting the ground. Turning his head he saw the woman he'd been there to save now laying lifeless on the ground. "No..."

"Looks like you failed," the man said, sounding smug.

"Not completely." he looked back at him. "You're still here."

That was the last thing the thug ever said before the masked man charged him and swiftly ended his life.

The man's dead body slumped lifelessly to the ground and Rorschach release it with disgust. He turned back to the body of the woman and walked over, kneeling down to get a better look.

Dead.

He started to walk away form the corpse laying on the pavement knowing there was nothing he could do for her. He hadn't gotten very far when he felt a slight tug on the hem of his pants. Pausing he looked down and saw a hand, the hand of the woman whom he had thought was dead, gripping the end of his pants.

"Hrn?"

"Please," the voice of the woman rasped, blood trickling out of her mouth and down her chin. "don't let them get my child." The her grip loosened and she slumpt facedown on the dirty pavement, the wound finally taking her life.

Child? Rorschach lifted his head and too a long look around the alley. He saw nothing but dumpsters and garbage cans. Where was this child? If the child was there it must be hiding somewhere. He began to move down the alley, looking behind trash cans and inside dumpsters.

Suddenly he heard a sound from behind a dumpster a little further ahead. "Who is there? Show yourself."

A young girl about eight years old peeked out from behind it and looked at him. She had large brown eyes and short brown hair tied into pigtails. She wore a tattered pink Barbie jacket and a pair of ripped blue jeans. She stared up at him with fear as if she expected him to harm her. He would never harm a child but he couldn't blame her for being afraid of him, he was an intimidating figure.

For the longest moment the two mere stood staring at each other in silence. Then her eyes lingered from him and fell on the figure on the ground, the body of her mother. The girl's eyes suddenly weld up with tears and she ran past him to kneel down beside her dead mother. He watched the young girl begin to cry, large tears spilling down her cheeks. She took her mother's hand.

"Mommy, mommy, please wake up," she whimpered through her tears. "We have to go home, please..."

Rorschach watched her try to wake her mother, unable to say or do anything. What could he tell her? Nothing, that's what, nothing he could say or do would help. Her mother was dead and she was alone... well not alone. He was there but he didn't know anything about taking care of children.

Either way he couldn't just stay leave her there or maybe he could? He had never promised the woman he would take care of the girl but, for some reason, he felt an obligation to at least do something for her now. It would be irresponsible to just leave her there.

Stepping quietly over to the girl he hesitantly placed a gloved hand on her small shoulder. She jumped slightly before turning her head, dirty tear tracks running down her face. "There is nothing you can do," he said, really not knowing what exactly to say to this girl. "Would be better to leave. Come with me."

He turned to go, not waiting for the girl to give him an answer. As he began to walk off he heard footsteps behind him. He glanced briefly over his shoulder and saw the little girl following close behind.

"Hnng." So she'd decided to trust him after all. That might be a bad idea. He could do nothing for her. It would be best if he took her to the police station and let them take care of her. Of course he wouldn't let them see him since they wanted to arrest him and all but he could always send the girl inside without going with he. It sounded like the right idea.

Placing his hands into the pockets of his tattered brown trench coat he and the girl walked up the alley and into the street.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The police station was about a ten minute walk from the alley. Rorschach turned to the girl once they were out front and said. "Go in. Tell of Incident. Take care of you." The girl looked at him uncertainly. "Be fine. Trust them." he told her, trying to reassure her. "Go."

The girl looked at him a moment longer then climbed the stairs to the door without a word. She glanced back at him for a moment then opened the door and stepped inside. Rorschach turned away, figuring this was the best thing for her. He proceeded to go back the way he came, deciding to make sure somebody had done something about the bodies in the alley.

As he drew near he stopped, hearing voices and glimpsing two shadows moving around. He knew by the lack of police cars and emergency vehicles that whoever it was was not there to help. Cautiously he moved closer to the alleyway to investigate and peered around the corner. He spotted two men dressed similar to the thugs he'd taken out before going through the bodies. They were speaking in hushed tones and removing the IDs and weapons from the corpses of the thugs.

"Looks like that masked guy got to them," the one muttered, pocketing a handgun. "They shoulda known better than to go off like that-"

"Shh!" the other man hissed.

"Eh, nobody can hear us anyway," the first one said, frowning at his comrade. "it's not like anyone is around listening in. Besides the police won't be here for a few more minutes." he stopped a moment and looked at the body of the woman. "Hey at least they took care of the broad."

"Her child is still out there," the second man reminded him. "She can still talk. You know the boss said they both had to be taken care of."

"What can a child do?" the man asked.

"She can squeal," the second snapped. "She could have run to the police station and told them everything."

"So what do we do?"

"We don't do nothing'," he said. "The big man already sent some people down there to make sure if the girl _does_ go there she won't be alive long enough to say anything." he chuckled. "one goes in, claims to be her father, and when he gets her and brings her out to the car." he put his finger to his head and make a bang sound effect.

Rorschach turned away from them, his mind racing. So there were more of them and now they wanted to go after the girl. But she should be safe in the police station right? Nothing to worry about...

"No..." he knew for the fact the police were not always reliable in things, just like when they had done nothing before..

He started moving, heading back toward the police station. No, the only way to be sure that girl was safe was to ensure it himself.

Picking up the pace, he moved hurriedly back to the police station. On the way two police cars and an ambulance passed by him on their way to the murder scene. Somebody had actually cared enough to call it in, soon they would be bagging the bodies and a investigation that would end nowhere would begin. At least for the police station, Rorschach on the other hand would continue until he brought whoever had caused the murder of that woman to justice.

But first he had to make sure the little girl, the one loose end, was safe. As he walked up to the station he noticed a unassuming car pull up to the building and a tall man step out. Rorschach moved out of view before he could be spotted and watched them around the side of the building. The man climbed the stairs and headed inside. Right away he deducted that this person and their driver were there for the girl and that he didn't have much time to get her out of there before those guys did. But how was he going to do that? He couldn't go inside without being spotted and the station was likely full of officers. If he went inside he could be overwhelmed and taken into custody. He would have to do something else.

"Look harmless..." he muttered. That left him with only one choice. He would have to go in as Walter Kovacs, his civillian identity.

Hating the idea of taking off his "face" and going civilian, a nameless nobody, he begrudgingly took off his mask and shoved it into a pocket in his trench coat before stepping around the building and walking up the front stairs just as it began to rain again. He was soaked by the time he stepped inside the building.

The waiting area was empty except for the dispatcher behind the desk. That meant the man who claimed to be her father had already gone to find her which was a bad thing. He would have to act quickly.

He walked past the dispatcher without being noticed as she was on the phone and had her head down and headed further into the station looking for the questioning rooms. They probably had the girl in one of them and it was where the other man would go as well. Hopefully he could get there before he did or catch him before he found her and deal with him quickly and quietly.

He checked each room as he moved, half expecting to find a bloody mess when he did but so far nothing. He picked up the pace, knowing he didn't have a lot of time. He sort of hoped he'd run into the thug who was sent to kill the girl so he could deal with him himself.

He would get his wish.

Not much longer he paused, getting a quick glimpse of the person he'd seen come out of the car. He quickly ducked around a corner, out of view. After waiting a moment he chanced a glance around the corner and carefully watched the man. He had not noticed the other man and seemed to be looking into rooms as Rorschach had been doing, obviously looking for that girl. That was a relief, he had not found her yet so he had time to make his move.

Without giving it another thought he sneaked up on the guy, grabbed him from behind, putting him into a headlock before yanking him into the men's room which was a short distance away. He quickly knocked the daylights out of the guy and left the room, continuing his search. Finally he found the room and quickly put his "face" back on before opening the door.

Rorschach stepped into the room and moved swiftly toward the little girl. "Come with me," he said taking her hand. "I am taking you out of here."

The girl looked at I'm not knowing what was going on. He'd left her here claiming it was the best place for her and now he was taking her out? Had something happened? She didn't know but she sensed from his demeanor and body language that it was something bad. She got up off the chair and followed him.

With a tight grip on her hand he quickly and quietly led her out of the police station through a back exit, keeping an eye out for officers and anyone who might be working with the people who'd come there to get her.

So far nobody had noticed but he was sure that wouldn't last much longer. They would be sending someone back to the station to question the girl further about what happened, especially the details on how her mother died. Plus he had no killed the thug who'd come in to take her, merely knocking him unconscious and shoving his body into the bathroom. He hadn't had time to take him out permanently without making too much noise and alerting the dispatcher or any remaining police officers in the building.

He gripped the girl's hand tightly and tugged her a little too forcefully toward the back of the station, keeping her close and stopping once in awhile to avoid running into a randomly wandering police officer who had not gone out to investigate the incident in the alley. Knowing New York City the murder in the alley was only one of hundreds of cases phoned in that very night.

Eventually they came to the back exit and Rorschach quickly opened the door and rushed out with the little girl, staying to the shadows and avoiding being spotted by anyone who might care to look.

The girl, who had said nothing till then asked him softly. "Where are we going?"

He gave her no response. She would find out eventually. He knew of only two places he could take her and one of he options was out because he had no intention of involving that pathetic flab sack. He'd given up on helping people a long time ago and Rorschach had no desire to speak with him, if he ever did again it would have to be due to something very serious, though that was extremely unlikely.

It was raining hard as the two made their way down the street to the run down part of the city where Rorschach had his apartment. He took the girl so many twists an urns to get there she had no idea where they were or how long they'd even be walking. As the city's buildings grew more run down the more the girl became frightened. She even gripped his hand harder and moved faster, feeling that even though he was dangerous and scary he was the closest thing to safety she had.

Rorschach finally came to a stop, right in front of a apartment building that looked abandoned. The front stairs looked like they were crumbling and garbage lay scattered around in front. The only way the girl could tell that the place wasn't abandoned was the fact a faint glow came through a few of the windows.

The girl stepped behind Rorschach fearfully. This place didn't look even a little bit safe. Why had he brought her here? What did he have planned?

She would have taken off but he still held a firm grip on her hand and something told her it wouldn't be a good idea to try to get free. He most likely wouldn't let her get away with throwing a tantrum.

Rorschach glanced down at the girl for a moment then tugged on her hand and began t lead her into the building. When this happened any self control she'd had just a moment before went away and she screamed, "NO!" before pulling backward to prevent him from taking her anywhere.

Oh great, Rorschach had not come prepared for this. "We are going inside," he told her though it did little more than make her throw herself onto the ground and scream harder.

"No, don't take me in there! i don't want to go in there!" she bellowed. "I want my mommy!"

"Mommy is dead!" he stated, beginning to lose his patience. "My responsibility now."

She continued screaming and trying to prevent him from taking her inside. If she kept this up someone would hear and make things worse by calling the police. He needed to make her stop that wailing before that happened.

But how? He could cover her mouth or go the violent route and slap her across the face. He didn't want to do that, he would never hit a child. So then what could he do?

The only thing he could do.

Reaching down he grabbed up the girl in his arms, being much stronger than he looked and muttering "sorry" slapped a hand over the girl's mouth to muffle the sound. she grabbed his hand and tried to pull it away from her mouth but was unable to. He moved quickly, hearing what sounded like running footsteps. He rushed around the side of the apartment and found the fire escape. Forced kept a tight hold on the girl and keep her quiet he had to climb the ladder one hand which was much harder than it sounded.

With a lot of trial and error and a lot of frustration he managed to reach the window to his apartment, open the window and climb inside, still holding onto the little girl. Once inside he set her down and placed her in front of him but still kept a hand over her mouth as he began to explain things to her.

"Listen," he said, trying not to sound like an threatening. "I will not hurt you. You are safe here. This is my apartment. " he felt the need to explain some things. "Your mother asked me to take care of you, to keep you safe and this was the only safe place I could bring you. Nothing and no one will know you are here and the men who killed your mother won't find you."

The girl went quiet but she was still crying.

"If I remove my hand will you promise not to scream," he asked. This was very hard for him. "You can cry but don't scream. do you promise?"

She nodded slowly.

"Okay." he removed her hand.

She did not scream, she only sat down on the floor wrapped her arms around her knees, placed her head into said knees and started crying quietly into them.

At least she wasn't screaming anymore, he told himself but now what was he going to do? Maybe he should just let her cry for now, no point distressing her further.

Figuring that was the best thing for now he turned away form her to occupy himself with something else. He walked out of the room and into the kitchen, taking off his "face" and setting it on the table. He then rested his hand on his real face and let out a long sigh, half from anger and half out of shear had been a long time since he'd actually gotten any sleep and his body was more than just whispering hints to him about it.

Still he had no time for that now, seeing as he currently had a child in his care to deal with. he would have to figure out what to do with her for the night before he could even consider actually allowing himself to rest. With that in mind he dropped his hand and opened the fridge looking inside, hoping to find something to give to the kid, she was probably hungry.

There was a carton of milk sitting on the nearly empty top rack. he pulled it out and shook it, realizing it was nearly empty but figured there was enough for one more glass and took the only clean cup out of the cabinet. He poured the milk into it then headed out of the room, being sure to put his mask on before doing so. he didn't want the girl to be able to identify him, though he was pretty sure he was a nobody anyway, his real face technically had no distinguishing features, it could blend in with the crowd very easily.

Once he was back in the main room he walked toward the girl and set the glass of milk on the table beside her. she looked up, eyes red from crying,stared at it for a second then up at him.

"Thought you might be thirsty." was all he said. he stood over her, hands in the pocket's of his coat. Though he was not a tall person in any way to the girl he towered over her, a creepy figure in dirty clothing. She was afraid to tell him no and slowly and carefully took the glass and sipped at the milk, worried he would hurt her if she didn't.

Her actions seemed to satisfy him and he loosened up a little, still standing over her but his body language was less stiff. she saw the black markings on his mask move into a different position. She stared, not knowing how that worked but finding it strangely fascinating.

Rorschach felt a little bothered with her staring and finally turned away saying. "You must be tired,you can sleep on the sofa. It's clean and you are safe here."

The girl looked from the sofa, which looked like it would fall apart any moment, and back to the man, finishing up her milk and saying nothing. A few seconds later she set the glass down and quietly made her way onto the sofa. He handed her a ratty blanket to cover herself with and headed out of the living room, leaving her alone in the small living room.

When he reached his own bedroom and turned his head back toward the living room she was still staring after him. He closed the door. One he was in his room he took his mask off, dropped it onto the night stand and collapsed onto the mattress, telling himself he'd get up again in a moment to make sure the kid had fallen asleep.

He fell into an exhausted sleep within minutes.

 _A/N_

 _Oh my gosh this chapter drove me bonkers. _ I hope nothing was confusing and I hope Rorschach was in character. He's a little hard to get right sometimes but I figured he'd be a bit more nicer to a kid than a grown up._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hours later the sensation of another presence in the bedroom with him woke Rorschach from an exhausted sleep. He let out a startled grunt and jerked awake, swinging at whoever it was who had thought it a good idea to sneak into his apartment and try to kill him. He froze, mid swing when he saw who it was.

The little girl whom he'd brought back with him was sitting on the bed. She stared in wide eyed fear at his fist which had stopped only an inch from her face. Walter, as he was now in civilian mode, stared back, brown eyes wide and breathing coming out in rabid exhales. He'd very nearly walloped her!

He quickly lowered his fist and demanded. "What are you doing in here? I could have hurt you."

The girl stared at him without a word but he saw tears were streaming down her face. Now he felt bad for yelling at her. Yes, she'd come uninvited into his room but she was just a kid who had lost her mother. He should have been more considerate.

"Sorry..." but he still wanted an explanation but this girl looked like she wasn't going to say a single thing to him. She hadn't said a single word since her mother had died except when he'd taken her to the apartment.

What could he do? She'd most likely come in there because she didn't want to be alone but he wasn't comfortable sleeping in a room with anybody even if they were only a child. But he knew she wouldn't leave him either and he couldn't be angry about that. The girl's mother had obviously loved her child dearly making sure she had someone to take care of her when she was dead, even if it was some one like him. His own mother might have been a horrible person but not all mothers were that way. There was definately a lot of love between those two.

"Mmmgh..."he made a small defeated sigh no longer able to stare into the girl's sad eyes any longer. "Fine. sleep here if want to." he started to get up. If she wanted the bed he wouldn't lay on it.

The girl watched him as he stood and it only unsettled him more. What did she want now? "What?"

She looked form the bed and back to him, her request clear. Of course, he'd figured she wanted to be there with him after all but not just in the room but close to him _? Beside_ him?!

"Fine." he sat back down, really not in the mood to argue with a little kid and still very tired from many nights without sleep. He reached out, pulled back the blankets and looked at her. The girl climbed under them and he covered her up. She curled up under the blanket, gripping the single pillow and still staring at him.

"Won't leave." he assured her. "Promise."

That seemed to satisfy her and she finally closed her eyes as if to go to sleep. He sat there for the longest time, watching the girl's breathing slow down to that of one in slumber before he lay back on the covers and sighed. It took a long time before he fell back to sleep.

When Walter woke up in the morning he discovered the girl was still in the bedroom with him. She was curled up under the covers, still sleeping soundly. He took a moment to stare at the child before slowly siting up and quietly leaving the room so not to wake her.

He headed into the kitchen to make himself some breakfast with what few things he had left in the cabinets. He would have to go shopping eventually, especially if he was keeping that kid in his care for much longer.

Bu he didn't make himself breakfast after all. He just made himself some coffee and flopped into the only chair at the table with a sigh. While he sipped the bitter drink he stared out the window, mind beginning to work on the problem at hand.

The death of the girl's mother had been more than just a random murder. She had been involved in something sinister somehow and now her daughter had been pulled into it. How and why he didn't know but he had concluded that he would have to find out, he couldn't just let it go.

For the moment he didn't have any answers but he knew how to find them out. He would just have to wait a little while before he began his investigation. For now...

He heard the sound of soft footfalls behind him and turned his head, spotting the young girl standing in the doorway of the kitchen. So she was awake.

"Hungry?" he asked, getting out of the chair.

The girl nodded slowly. He made a soft grunt and opened the cabinets to find the girl something to eat as she slowly stepped into the room and watched him without a single word. He found a half eaten box of cereal and poured some in a bowel. Since she had drunk the remainder of the milk the night before she would have to eat it dry. He set the bowel on the able and gestured for the girl to sit down. She did so but didn't eat, simply staring silently at it.

"Eat." he ordered. "Need to."

She put her fingers into the bowel and started eating with them. Walter did not scold her about it, he ate beans cold out of the can after all and was in no place to judge how people consumed their food. He watched her eat in silence for a moment before deciding to try to ask her a few questions about the events that had brought upon the murder of her parent.

"Girl."

She looked up at him, chewing the cereal.

"Questions." he grabbed a box full of junk sitting by the window and pulled it over to the table to sit on. He met her eyes. "Last night. What happened?"

The girl stared back, no longer eating. For the longest time they stared at each other, not a word passing between them.

After a moment Rorschach began to realize this girl wasn't going to say a word. She was obviously still in shock about what had happened to her mother and it would take awhile before she got out of it. He sighed, sitting back and running a hand through his unruly red hair.

It seemed he would have to find out the cause of the events another way. He stood up and went into the living room, leaving the girl to finish her cereal.

While in the room he paced, reviewing what little he knew so far. The woman's husband had owed some crime lord money and hadn't been able to pay the interest. He dies somehow and the men go after the mother. She refuses their sick offer and they kill her and then they decide to go after the girl, as if she knew anything about it. Most people in that situation wouldn't get their children involved in something like that, they would shield them from it so the desire to kill the child would be due to her being able to identify the killers which he himself had taken out.

So why still pursue the child?

"Hngh." they must believe the child knew more and maybe she did but she wasn't talking right now due to trauma but she might eventually. That was the issue or so they believed. The child would continue being in danger because of this perceived idea. He would have to continue protecting her until he was able to deal with this problem.

How was he going to do that if he had to keep an eye on her? He couldn't bring the little girl with him while he investigated, that would be unwise. She could get hurt or worse and only an irresponsible person would do that to a child.

He would have to involve someone else and he knew of only one person who would actually be willing to do it without involving other people.

Walter was not looking forward to seeing him again.

But who said he had to? He could just leave the girl there for now. If she stayed quiet nobody would know she was there and he doubted she'd make any noise anyway since his TV was broken and she didn't know where she was. It would be dangerous if she tried to leave, his neighbors weren't exactly the most friendly people.

Okay, then it was settled.

* * *

The morgue was silent and empty. As the janitor walked through the building, pushing a wheeled mop in front of him, he paused a moment to rub his arm as a slight chill coursed through him and cause goose flesh to rise on his arms. It was always cold in this part of the hospital partly due to the constant air conditioning and partly due to the knowledge that dead bodies were stored in the place. The man moved on, never changing course as he passed the room where autopsies took place and continued on until he reached the office of the mortician.

Once there he paused briefly to look around before taking out a large chain of keys and, after finding the one that fit, opened the door and stepped inside. He then turned his attention to some filing cabinets and opened them one by one going through each file until finding the right one.

"Here," he muttered, lifting the file and opening it. The picture inside confirmed it as he recognized the woman's face. "Mrs. Amanda Blake."

He paged through the report, taking in all the details he could before the mortician returned from his break to continue working. He didn't want to be caught as it would be really hard to explain what he was doing there. Once he finished reading he put the file away and returned it to its folder before searching for the report on the three thugs who'd tried to hurt her. Finally he found their files and browsed through them, pausing for a moment when he saw a Polaroid image of a gang tattoo on the one man's arm.

Swearing lightly under his breath he shoved all the files back into the cabinets, and got out of there. He'd learned more than he needed.

* * *

"Giovanni Fiorina should have known," Rorschach muttered, moving quickly away from the coroners office. His shoes splashed through a puddle from the still falling rain but he didn't notice. "Loan shark. Pimp. Drug lord. Leader of Scorpions. Notorious gang always gets away with crimes without repercussion."

The man knew this because he'd had previous run ins with the gang on previous occasions, though he had never been able to find enough proof to make the police take notice, they seemed much more interested in dealing with petty criminals, not notorious mob bosses. This was why he refused to retire, someone needed to deal with those pieces of trash and if not the authorities then him. He wouldn't allow them to get off lightly.

Maybe the incident with the girl would change things. He would have to return to his apartment to check on her. He also intended to ask her a few questions and hopefully she would be willing and able to give him some answers.

* * *

The girl had spend her time at Rorschach's apartment doing nothing more than staring. She'd been ordered rather harshly not to turn on the TV, radio, or answer the door if anyone knocked. Since she had no idea where she was and was still scared she'd listened, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention.

The fact he'd also given her harsh warning about the people who lived in his neighborhood also helped. Even f he was intimidating and scared her he seemed to at least care though she couldn't figure out why he'd taken her from the police station as he hadn't given her an explanation. It made no sense to her since he'd been the one to take her there to begin with.

The only answer she could give herself was that something was wrong and he had wanted to protect her from it and thought the police weren't able to do it.

But what was it? The answer to that question was far from coming and she was way too young to come up with one that made sense. Maybe he would tell her if she asked but she was afraid to. What if he hurt her? But why would he harm her if he'd gone through so much to keep her safe? She didn't know but it made sense to her. He was a big mean scary man and even if he was protecting her he might decide to spank her for being a bad girl or something.

She wouldn't ask, she would behave herself.

But children didn't always do what they were told and she started getting a little antsy. She moved around the apartment to find something to entertain herself that would not make noise. She eventually found some paper and a pencil and went back into the living room, sitting down on the sofa and setting the paper on the coffee table. She started drawing pictures.

A few moments later she heard the man in the coat return, dressed differently from before and missing the mask. He came in the front door setting a large wooden sign down on the floor before turning to face the child who was seated on the sofa.

He paused, staring at her without a word. She stared back just as silently and getting a good look at him. She'd seen his face quit a few times since they'd come to the apartment but she didn't look at him long enough to take in any details as her mother had always told her staring at strangers was rude. He seemed like the kind of person who didn't like being stared at but since he was looking at her she figured it would be okay to stare back.

There really wasn't much to take in looks wise. Walter Kovacs wasn't exactly a prize to look at with his plain features. Mushed up red hair, lifeless brown eyes and freckles scattered over the parts of his face not hidden by stubble. But his look didn't bother her much she was just a kid and he wasn't really scary except his eyes which didn't seem to hold the light. They made her feel sad so she looked away from him.

He didn't seem bothered by the child's staring anyway but he was grateful she looked away. He walked over to the girl. "Hey."

She looked up at him, waiting.

"Would like some answers," he said after a moment. "Willing to give them now?"

The girl had no idea what he meant by that or if she could tell him anything at all but she nodded. He seemed satisfied with this and sat down on the other end of the sofa. He opened his mouth to begin but paused, noticing the drawings on the table. He reached over and picked one up to stare at it.

It looked like a drawing of a family. A mother, a father, and a child. He looked at her. "This your family?" he asked.

She blinked then nodded.

He looked back at it. "Seem happy."

She nodded again.

"Miss them."

Once more she nodded and he saw tears welling up in her eyes.

"Sorry." he looked away.

The girl began to sniffle and he saw her wipe her face out of the corner of her eye. Maybe now wouldn't be a good time to ask her anything since her mother's death was still fresh in her mind but he knew he had to ask her eventually. Some things he wouldn't be able to piece together without her telling him and what made him think she knew that much anyway? She was a little kid for Pete's sake! He'd been wrestling with this all day long. He knew the parents probably told her nothing but if he knew kids at all he knew they were curious and their curiosity would make them hear or wittiness things unintentionally.

Walter had to ask her, he didn't have any other choice. So he cleared his throat to get her attention and began.

 _A/N_

 _The timeline at which this story takes place is slightly left up to the reader. It does take place some time after costumed heroes are banned but that is about it. If Rorschach thinking the police are incapable of taking care of a kid who is a target for some real shady people is out of character I apologize. I had gotten the idea after reading the before Watchmen comics and watching the movie. I'd read the original comic a few years ago so I do know the source material. I guess my interpretation of Rorschach is he doesn't seem like the kind of person to leave a child in incapable hands if he was the one requested to take care of it. ._

 _By the way in case anyone is wondering... Rorschach is being very protective of this kid because of what happened to Blair. He doesn't want what happened to her to happen to this kid. I dunno I just got the feeling he probably felt a bit guilty about what happened to her. It's just me, though. *shrug*_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Child," he began his questions as gently as possible. "When your parents were alive did you ever overhear anything by accident?"

She blinked at him, her mouth remaining shut.

Okay so it wouldn't be easy but maybe he could help convince her to tell him something. "Listen,"he pausedfor a moment. "I want to find the person who is responsible for your parents being killed so they can be put to justice. If you have heard anything you weren't supposed to by accident that could help me, I would appreciate it. "

The girl looked back down at her drawing then at him again as if she were trying to decide whether to say anything or not. Walter waited, knowing it would be a good idea to let the girl make the decision herself. If he didn't press her she would tell him without any problems.

Finall,y she spoke in a very tiny voice. "If I tell you do you promise to make sure those bad men are punished for hurting my Mommy?"

"Of course." he told her truthfully. "Will not get away with it. Will pay."

"Promise?" she asked again, this time with a bit more force. She obviously wanted to be sure he wasn't just saying those things to make her feel better.

"Promise," he replied. His tone was all the reassurance she needed.

The girl went back to drawing as it was a distraction and it helped her say things without allowing it to harm her. A sort of coping mechanism, or that was what he told himself because he didn't know.

"One night when I was supposed to be in bed I came downstairs and heard Daddy talking to some people," she began, drawing a sun on the paper. "I don't know what they were talking about but they told Daddy that he would be ice skating if he didn't do what they said."

"Ice skating?"

She looked up at him. "What else can you do when you're on the ice?"

He got what she meant now. They'd been threatening death on her father. "What did he say?"

"I don't know," she replied. "Mommy caught me and took me back to bed."

Well that wasn't helpful at all. "Do you remember what any of them looked like?"

She stopped and bit her lip, looking like she was concentrating hard. "One of them was big, like a wrestler and he had on sunglasses." she went back to her drawing. "I think he had black hair and there was a drawing of a scorpion on his neck. I know it was a scorpion because my first grade teacher was telling us about bugs and spiders." she shuddered. "I don't like bugs. They're scary."

A scorpion. The gang the man the other thugs worked for controlled. Obviously they were also a part of the events leading to the death of her mother and possibly her father as well. He'd checked the bodies of the three who had been responsible for that. None of them had had this tattoo which meant he controlled more than just the gang.

"Anything else?"

She thought for awhile longer. It had been nearly a year since she'd witnessed the incident and since she was only a kid it hadn't really been something she paid too much attention to. Since children usually had other things on their minds.

"Um..." she thought for a bit longer, trying to jog her memory but having little success. "I don't remember anymore. I'm sorry."

He didn't press her. Maybe she could tell him something else though. "Did you wittiness anymore of these incidents by accident?"

"I don't know."

"Try to remember. It's important."

The girl looked up at him with sad eyes. "I.. don't remember," she said again. "Daddy tried to do his business with people when I wasn't home. Mommy would tell me it isn't something little girls should worry about. Mommy and I would go to the playground when Daddy said people from his work were coming over."

"Hnngh."

The girl wiped her eyes as she began to cry again. Walter decided it might be a good idea to let it go for now as he was only making her more upset. He could always try again later. It wouldn't be a good idea to alienate this girl after all. She was the only wittiness he had.

"It's fine." he told her after a moment. "Did well."

The girl nodded slowly but he could tell she didn't believe him. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of much help," she told him . "If I remember anymore I promise to tell you. I really want to help you after what they did to Mommy."

"Hnngh." he got up off the sofa and went over to look out the window. As he stood there, staring out at the rain, he could feel the little girl's eyes on his back. She seemed to be waiting for him to say something else to her. But what did she want? There wasn't anything he could say to her. The things he'd learned so far at the morgue were too graphic to relay to her. It wouldn't make her feel any better, he was sure it would only frighten her. She was a child after all.

"Will you be able to find them?" the little girl finally asked him.

He looked over his shoulder at the child sitting on the sofa. "Yes." It was a promise.

* * *

Walter spent most of the rest of the day in his apartment. He'd made a decision earlier that day after he'd finished talking to the girl. He would stay there until it was time for bed. Once he was sure she'd fallen asleep he would leave and do some more investigating. He might also do some eavesdropping at the police department just to see if they had made any progress in the investigation... if they even had one.

While he waited for it to get dark he kept an eye on the girl who spent most of the rest of the day drawing somewhat unsettling pictures on the paper she'd found. Her art would have bothered a saner person but aside from him finding them mildly disturbing it didn't upset him. The art reminded him of some of the stuff he'd drawn as a kid though her stuff was far tamer in comparison.

Not that that was a big deal anyway. It was just a little kid expressing her feelings after seeing her mother murdered in front of her. He wasn't going to psycho analyze it.

So while she drew things and he kept an eye on her, he put the few foodstuffs he bought at the store away in the fridge and the cabinet. He knew he'd be having the girl around for awhile so he had bought milk. Two jugs. Little kids drank a lot of milk so he figured he'd have more of it around for her if she wanted it.

He'd also bought her something to play with. It was a small doll, not anything big or expensive just a small plush doll with braided, blond yarn hair, blue button eyes, and wearing a pink dress. Walter had almost given it to her when he'd come home but his desire to talk to the girl had made him forget about it. Now that he'd put the food away and had asked her the questions he could give it to her.

So he took it out of the bag and headed into the living room to give it to her.

But just as he was headed out of the room there was a knock on door to his apartment. Walter paused and looked toward the door. Who could that be? Nobody he knew even knew where he lived.

"Mr. Kovacs!" he voice of his land lady called from outside the apartment. "Open this door!"

Great, his land lady was the last person he wanted to talk to right now.

He looked at the girl who looked back at him. She picked up the paper and left the door without a word as if she knew that was what he wanted. He was thankful for that and after the girl had hidden in the bedroom he placed the doll he'd bought into a drawer in the kitchen and went to answer the door.

When he opened he door he indeed found his land lady standing in the hall, her hands resting on her over sized hips and a look of utter disdain on her face. "You are late in paying your rent again, Mr. kovacs," she started right into him. "I have waited long enough for you to hand it over."

"I told you," he said in a flat tone. "You will get it at the end of the week."

"I have heard that excuse before," she snapped. "You have been given enough chances already and this is the last straw." she pointed right into his face, her finger only inches from his nose. "You either give me my money right now or you can just find some place else to drop your pathetic butt."

Walter frowned. He really didn't need this right now. It wouldn't be such a problem if it was only himself he had to think about but he had a kid to take care of and there was no way he was going to force her to live on he streets.

"Wait right here." he said finally and began to shut the door.

The woman put her foot in the door to keep him from closing it. "Oh no, you don't," she said. "I'm not letting you get away that easily. I'm coming in and watching you get my money."

He didn't bother fighting with her about it and let go of the door. "Suit yourself."

The woman followed him into the apartment and then stood there with eh eyes locked on him as he went to get what little money he had to pay the rent. Even as he felt her eyes on him he ignored her, going into the kitchen to retrieve the money, what little he had anyway. He'd intended to use some to feed himself but this woman wouldn't leave him alone until she got it all. Ah well, he could always go to the food bank. It was a bit of a good thing he had her undivided attention. It just meant she wouldn't be focusing on anything else in the apartment. The woman was pretty nosy.

After he got the money and returned to where the woman stood and handed it over. She snatched it from him, counted the bills then left once she was satisfied it was all there. He closed the door behind her without a word, just glad that the overweight whore was finally gone.

As he turned away he saw the girl peeking out of his bedroom door. "You can come out now, Miss Blake." he told her.

The girl came out of the room, still looking toward the door. "She doesn't know you're here," he told her. "Nothing to worry about."

She looked at him and gave a slow nod. "Who was that?" she asked him carefully as she crossed the room, the paper and pencil she'd been using to draw pictures still in her hands.

"Land lady," he said. "Nobody important."

"Oh..." she set the paper on the table and began to draw. "She seems mean."

"You could say that."

"Why doesn't she like you?" she asked, looking at him.

The question surprised him a little. This girl had been exposed to him for nearly twenty four hours and she should have been able to pick up in that time he wasn't the greatest person to be around. He hated people, he considered all humanity to be evil. The few who he didn't view that way were usually children before the darkness of life corrupted them.

"I am not a nice person," he told her. No point going into a huge explanation about it. She was way too young to understand that sort of thing.

"Oh..." she looked up at him. "Why aren't you a nice person?" she wanted to know.

Walter just stared at her. Now how did she expect him to explain that to her? "Just not." was the answer he gave.

"OK..." she let it go, realizing pushing the issue might make him mad and he was scary enough already. She didn't want to find out how he acted when he was mad.

Walter was glad she let the question drop.

* * *

Nothing much went on for the rest of the day. The girl seemed content with just drawing pictures and saying nothing. She did eat when Walter made her something but was quiet through the meal. By the time it was late enough for her to actually go to sleep the girl was willing to allow it and put up no fuss whatsoever.

It was almost as if she knew he'd rather be doing something else and didn't want to inconvenience him anymore than she had to, Walter figured. It made things much easier all around.

After he'd put the girl to bed in his room and made sure she actually was sleeping Walter took out his costume and "face". and shed his civilian identity, becoming his true self, Rorschach. Once he'd put the mask on he felt whole again. Being Walter during the daytime was always tiring. It felt good to stop pretending once more.

After checking on the girl once more and assuring himself she was sleeping soundly, Rorschach opened the window to the fire escape outside his apartment and climbed out, dropping down from the metal platform and to the alley below.

It was time to continue his investigation.

First though he had to find the apartment where the girl and her family lived. This would prove to be no easy task as the little girl, whose name he still hadn't learned, had not told him. He blamed himself for that as he hadn't taken the time to ask her.

He considered that a moment then decided against it, choosing to wait until he could talk to the little girl again before he headed there. In the meantime he could get information about the man behind the murder from other sources and he knew exactly where to go to do just that.

* * *

The smell of stale beer and body odor assaulted his nose the moment Rorschach entered the bar. Though he was used to it by now from coming there often to get information about numerous gangs and their activities from the patrons it still left him feeling a little nauseous if he had to breath it in for too long.

The moment he stepped into the room all activity had ceased as all the patrons had looked up from their drinks and whatever else they were doing to stare at him. This was also normal for him and he ignored it. He knew nobody here would bother him. They feared and hated him and were smart enough no to try messing with him as he could give a lot more than he got. His reputation also prevented new comers who might not know about him yet from trying.

If one did make a foolish attempt at baiting him due to his height and rather scrawny appearance they would wake up in the hospital wondering how they got there. Once this happened they never would bother him again if they knew what was good for them.

Rorschach ignored all the people staring as he crossed the room and reached the counter. The man behind the bar knew him well enough and eyed him, giving a silent warning with his eyes to not try anything. Rorschach body language was tense enough but with a slight movement of his head he basically let the man know that he wasn't there to start anything unless someone else did first.

"Hey you!" someone called to him before he could address the man behind the counter.

Rorschach turned his head, his gaze fixing on a man sitting near the window. He looked to be nearly a foot taller than he was with the body of a football players and the face of a trouble maker. Greasy hair, dull red eyes from too much illegal drug use and gold chains on his neck. A real asshole.

"Hmmngh." the much shorter man turned to face him.

"You Rorschach?" the man asked, smirking at him.

Rorschach said nothing. If this punk was asking he already knew. He would not be the one carrying this conversation. However it ended it would be all on the other man.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" the tall man snapped, moving away from his table to tower over the masked vigilante. "When I talk to someone I expect an answer, short stuff."

Again Rorschach said nothing, knowing all eyes were on the two men. He looked up at the taller man, hands at his sides and not the least bit intimidated by his size. He was waiting for this punk to make a move, any move, that would be perceived as a threat.

"Are you deaf as well as dumb?" the punk continued, emboldened by Rorschach's lack of a reaction. "Come on, little man, show me how tough you are or is your reputation based on a pack of lies." he smirked. "Yeah, I think that's what it is. There's no way a scrawny little runt like you could strike fear in the hearts of anyone."

"Antho-" a girl at the table began to say.

"Shut up, Margo!" he snapped at her.

Margo shrank back but she still looked rather worried about he whole thing. She'd obviously heard about Rorschach reputation as well and unlike her moronic boyfriend, actually believed it. It was easy to tell she didn't want anyone to get hurt.

"Listen to woman," Rorschach said. "Smarter than you. Might have more brains than you ever will."

"Anthony" obviously didn't like being insulted. "Why you-" "he swung at the much smaller man.

Rorschach expected the blow and grabbed the man's fist when it came toward his face. He held it in his hand, the ink inside his mask moving into a new pattern. "Stupid and slow." his grip on the fist tightened

The man's face twitched in pain as Rorschach began to crush his hand. He let out a roar and attempted to kick the smaller man in the face. The masked man dodged the blow easily, throwing himself to the floor. He still held onto the bigger man's arm and when he fell he pulled him forward knocking him off balance. Rorschach placed his foot on the man's stomach and with a mighty yank with strength that far surpassed his much thinner body, he launched the man over him and into the wall behind the bar.

The man behind he counter had to duck as the big thug flew toward him and then slammed hard into the glass covered wall. Hit the glasses with a loud crash and then fell bodily onto the floor, a shower of glass falling on top of him.

"OUT!" the bar tender hollered at Rorschach. "I warned you about starting anything."

"Not my fault," Rorschach muttered. "Other man started it." But he left anyway.

 _A/N_

 _I know this is a weird time to say it but I honestly don't think walter/Rorschach is ugly. Sure he's no Johnny Depp but he's not a butt face. I think he's cute. Also It's probably obvious but I am flipping between his civilian name and his hero name. When he's not in costume he's Walter and when he is he's Rorschach. It makes things less confusing._

 _Hey by the way did you know the name "Walter" means "ruler of the army". Kinda fitting in my opinion. Heh._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Visiting that bar had proved to be a complete waste of time. Rorschach could have gotten some information if the punk with a chip on his shoulder hadn't decided to start something. What had that dirt bag even been thinking, coming at him like that?

"Stupid punk," he concluded to himself. "Nothing more."

But maybe not. When he'd thrown the guy across the room he thought he'd caught a glimpse of a suspicious looking tattoo on the man's neck. He wasn't sure because he'd only seen it for a split second but it looked like it had been a scorpion.

He looked back toward the bar, weighing his options. If he went back in he would just be thrown out or banned from the place forever. Since it was one of the best places for him to get information he chose not to return but instead hung around outside but out of sight of any of the patrons who might leave.

If he waited long enough "Anthony" would surely come out and he could follow him from there.

Yeah, that would be a good idea.

This decided, he crossed the street and entered an alley, just out of view from anyone leaving the bar and sat down to wait. It didn't matter how long it took, Rorschach had endless patience.

He didn't have to wait for long, though. Within a half hour he spotted the tall thug leave the bar, alone. It seemed his girlfriend had ended their relationship, judging on the man's body language proving once again that she was smarter than him. The punk headed away from the bar, hands in pockets and head down.

Rorschach counted to thirty before he began to follow him, keeping a respectable distance between the two. He didn't want to alert the punk that he was tailing him and risk him bolting.

He didn't need to worry too much about that. The punk was so distracted with whatever was going on in that pea brain of his he didn't even notice the much smaller man in the trench coat tailing him.

Unfortunately the man didn't take him anywhere that could help him further. He simply headed home, arriving at a somewhat run down apartment building, not unlike Rorschach's own, and heading inside. The masked vigilante followed him in anyway. He might just find something important hidden inside this punk's residence.

Once Anthony reached the door to his apartment Rorschach ducked out of view and watched him from around a corner as he unlocked the door and went inside. When the door was closed the other man walked over to it and peeked in through the keyhole.

He could see the guy move around his small apartment. he watched him make himself a microwaved dinner then sit down with it in front of the TV with a glass of beer. That was about all he did and it was rather boring.

No matter. He was in a completely vulnerable position. Rorschach could easily take him off guard which is exactly what he did by kicking in the door. The punk looked up from his food and stared wide eyed at the man in his doorway.

Rorschach didn't even give him time to react as he rushed inside, slamming the door shut behind him and charing the much taller man. Anthony only had time to drop his remote before Rorschach was on him, knocking him over with a flying kick to the face. He slammed hard onto the floor and the smaller man yanked his one arm behind his back, and shoved a foot into his spine, pinning him to the floor.

"Need information." Rorschach said, leaning over him. "You will give it to me."

"Screw you!" Anthony spat at him, squirming under him.

Rorschach caught one of his fingers and swiftly broke it. The man yelled in pain. "Will give it to me," he said again. "Understand?"

Anthony nodded helplessly.

"Good." This guy was nothing but a big baby. This was going to be easy.

* * *

The girl had woken up some time after Rorschach had left. She got out off of the bed and went to the bathroom, noticing the man was gone but didn't feel worried or afraid. She already knew he would leave after she went to sleep so it didn't bother her. She proceeded to do her business then head back to the bedroom but stopped when she noticed something sticking out of a drawer in the main room.

Curious she went over and opened the drawer, taking the item out.

It was the doll Rorschach had bought her earlier that day. She stared at it for a moment before she hugged it to herself.

She didn't know why but the fact that he had bought her something when he really didn't have to made her feel a bit better. When he came back she would remember her manners and thank him properly. In the meantime she would just keep it with her and she did so, returning to the bedroom and climbing into bed with it.

She hugged it close to herself as she slowly went back to sleep.

* * *

"Where is your boss?" Rorschach demanded, leaning over the punk. "Tell now!"

"I don't know who you mean!" the thug whined.

"Giovanni Fiorina!"

"I don't know who that is!"

"Lies. Fiorina leader of Scorpions." SNAP another finger was broken. 'answer now!"

"Ok, okay!" the man wailed.

Now they were getting somewhere. "Tell."

But the idiot didn't know. The best thing he could do was give Rorschach the address of another person who had closer ties with the known crime lord. Rorschach had gone there next only to discover that the man wasn't home and some of his underlings were throwing some kind of wild party. The masked man had decided not to bother going inside choosing to return to the place at a later date when fewer people would be around to hinder him.

He headed back to his apartment then, feeling he should at least check in on the girl to make sure she was still there and hadn't wandered off in the building. The last thing he needed was one of his neighbors seeing her and calling the police to come and pick her up. If she told them where she came from it would be worse as none of his neighbors knew who he was.

They might just feel like turning him in would ensure them some kind of fame and he didn't need that. He wasn't the bad guy. What he did might be illegal by the government's new standards but he didn't feel like that at all. He was only trying to make the world a better place to live in!

Rorschach was relieved to discover the girl was still sound asleep in his bed when he entered his home and checked in on her. She was curled up under the covers, looking peaceful. He started to close the door but paused when he caught sight of something in her arms.

It was the doll he'd bought her earlier that day. He didn't remember giving it to her though.

She must have found it herself, he realized, shutting the door.

Now that he'd checked in on her he could go out again but he didn't feel like doing so at that moment. What would he be able to accomplish that night? Nothing, as the people he needed to talk to weren't in their proper locations.

"Have to continue," he told himself, heading back to the window."still have much to do." even if he couldn't continue his investigation he could still go out and deal with a few minor criminals.

There was always plenty of them lurking about.

The next morning when the girl woke up and left the room, still hugging to doll to herself, she stopped to stare when she saw Rorschach ,looking a little worse for wear, coming in through the window. Obviously he'd been out all night doing whatever it was he did. To her he looked exhausted.

After he'd closed the window he turned and paused when he saw the girl staring at him, her brown eyes wide. He said nothing to her, merely grunting and turning away to head into the kitchen. She blinked, slightly confused and followed after him.

When she peeked into the room she saw him take off his mask and sit down,placing his elbows on the table as he rubbed his face, sighing tiredly. He eventually noticed her watching him and stared at her without a word. To her it looked like he was somewhat annoyed to see her there and she wondered if she should leave him alone.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, already turning to leave him in peace. "I'll go away."

She left him be then and went to the bathroom which was where she'd intended to go after waking up in the first place.

After relieving herself she lingered in the room a little longer, feeling as if it would be a good idea to do so so not to be in his way. Eventually her growling stomach forced her to leave as she was too hungry to simply hang out there any longer. It was a relief to get out of there anyway since the bathroom looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years and stank to high heaven.

Rorschach might have been good at fighting crime but he was a terrible house keeper.

When she cautiously poked her head into the kitchen she discovered he was gone. She stood there, wondering where he'd gone off to then after a moment realized he might have gone to bed. If he was sleeping she didn't want to wake him up, even though she was hungry.

She decided to get her own breakfast.

she entered the room and stared at the cabinets for a moment before she pulled the chair up to the counter and stood up on it to get the cereal out of the cabinet. When she couldn't reach she climbed onto the back of the chair and reached up, grabbing the box sitting up on the top shelf.

"What are you doing?!" a voice called behind her.

Startled she turned, losing her balance and falling.

Before she hit the floor though she was caught and she opened her eyes to see alter staring down at her, frowning rather angrily. She realized he'd managed to catch her before she hit the floor.

"What were you doing?" he demanded. "Didn't your mother teach you not to climb on chairs?"

"I'm sorry," the girl said. "I was just trying to get some breakfast."

"You should have asked me to do it."

"I didn't want to bother you," she answered. "I thought you were sleeping."

"I wasn't." he set her down. "I was only getting the mail."

"Oh... I'm sorry." she watched as he got her the cereal and a bowl to put it into. Then he got her some milk and set the food on the table. She climbed into the chair and began to eat, though she didn't look at him. She was sure he was mad at her.

He wasn't exactly mad, just a little annoyed but he couldn't really blame her for what she did. She was only a little kid after all. While she ate he stood there, arms folded, watching her.

"How did you sleep?" he finally asked her

The girl looked up, surprised by the question. Did he actually care or was he just making conversation? She didn't know but felt she should at least answer the question. "Yes," she said. "I slept just fine."

"I saw you found the doll I bought," he remarked.

The girl stopped eating, caught. By the tone of his voice he didn't sound very happy about it, or so she thought since she'd hardly ever heard him use any kind of emotion when talking. She could only assume he was mad because she hadn't asked for it. "I'm sorry," she told him. "I thought it was for me. I shouldn't have taken it. I'll give t back if you want me to."

He grunted and shrugged. "Can keep it," he told her. "Bought it for you anyway."

She felt relieved though she still wondered why he'd bought it. "Okay," she said, looking into her cereal bowl guiltily. "Can... ummm may I ask why?"

"Why?" he asked,looking at her. "Because figured you needed something to play with while here."

"Oh..." she looked back at her breakfast. "Thank you, Mr. Kovacs." she only knew his last name due to his yelling land lady.

"Rorschach." he corrected her instantly.

"Rorschach." she said then asked. "Don't you like being called Mr. Kovacs?"

"No."

"Why not?" she was curious.

"Because I don't like that name." he stated. "It's not who I am."

The girl didn't understand what he meant by that. "Then why do you have that name?" she asked. "Were you adopted? Did your Mommy and Daddy name you Rorschach?"

"...No."

"What did your Mommy and Daddy name you then?"

He didn't look like he wanted to answer but did anyway. "Walter."

"Walter?" she said. "I like that name. My daddy's name was Walter."

"Hnngh."

"My mommy's name was Amanda," she said.

"I know." he said.

"Oh... well do you know my name?"

He admitted. "No I don't."

"Do you want to know my name?"

"It would help." he said eventually.

"Okay. My name is Alice."

"Hnngh."

"Don't you like my name?" she asked. "It's the only name I have. I don't have two names like you do."

"It's fine." he told her. "I never said I didn't like it."

"Oh... ok." for a moment she said nothing then asked. "Is Rorschach your favorite name?"

He was getting a little aggravated now. "Why don't you just finish your breakfast before it gets soggy?"

Alice decided to let it drop. "Ok." she didn't want him to spank her so she finished her breakfast without another word.

The room went silent.

Until after she was finished that is, then she started up again as Walter washed the few dishes in the sink. He must have been feeling the need to be cleaner since a kid was around and he didn't want her to get sick or something. The last thing he needed was to take her to the hospital because of his not so clean lifestyle.

"Is Rorschach your favorite name?" sher asked hin again. "How come you chose it? What does it mean? Whats' a Rorschach?"

Walter sighed. Why was this girl suddenly asking so many questions? "It's too complicated to explain to someone your age," he said,hoping to deter her.

"Why?"

"Because it's only something an adult can understand."

"Does it have something to do with your mask?" she asked. "I mean the black stuff moves around in it and it looks weird. People in comic books tend to take on names that are a part of something called a motive. Is that your motive?"

"Miss Blake," he said slowly. "This isn't a comic book. People in real life don't do things like that."

"But Mommy told me of someone in real life named Nite Owl and he has an owl motive," she argued.

"I'm not Nite Owl." he said, his voice slightly strained. Why in the world did she have to mention Nite Owl anyway?

"Did you know Nite Owl?" she asked next. "I mean you seem to both be some kind of super heroes."

Walter didn't want to talk about this and he was annoyed she'd even brought it up. Not wanting to yell, he counted to ten before he answered in a level voice. "I don't want to talk about this." he added before she even asked."It isn't something I want to be reminded of so leave it alone."

That basically answered her question. "Okay..." she said.

"Why don't you go draw something?" he asked. "I put some paper out for you."

"Okay." she left the room without anymore fuss, feeling like it would be a good idea to not bother him anymore.

Once she was out of the room Walter finished up the dishes then sat down in the chair and rested his head on his arms on the table, sighing. She just had to bring that up, just what he didn't need to be reminded of right now. The one person he considered a friend had wound up being nothing but a pushover, backing away from his responsibility to the world because the government told him it wasn't legal anymore.

He remembered the day it happened and the argument the two had. He'd left Daniel's house without a word after that and hadn't been back except when the man wasn't home. Him breaking in and stealing his food was his way of leaving a message. One Daniel failed to get.

Walter wasn't one to swear but he did just then, letting out a stream of profanity in frustration. Stupid Nite Owl. Stupid Silk Specter. Stupid Dr. Manhattan and Comedian. Stupid stupid stupid!

He stayed that way until he felt a hand rest on his arm. Startled, he lifted his head and found the girl standing by him, looking worried. "What?"

"Are you okay?" she asked him. "I heard you saying things my Daddy says when he's angry. Are you mad at me?"

"No."he told her, forcing himself to compose himself. "Not you I'm mad at. Other people."

"Oh,who?"

He stood up. "Nobody important," he said. "Don't worry about it."

He passed by her and she watched him leave the room, feeling bad for him. He seemed upset to her. Young as she was, she wanted to help him feel better. Her Mommy always hugged her when she felt bad or gave her a kiss but she didn't think he would like that. Maybe she could make him something instead.

Why not? she let the idea simmer for awhile then left the room herself, knowing exactly what she could do for him.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The little girl seemed to be avoiding Walter the rest of the day. If he happened to enter whatever room she was in she'd get up and leave without a word. He knew it shouldn't be bothering him but it did. He wondered if she might be thinking she'd made him upset somehow and was keeping her space so not to feel like a pest. Of course that wasn't true, but she was just a little girl.

Walter hadn't said anything to her about it since he realized she was trying to be considerate but he would eventually if she kept it up. How did she expect him to keep her safe if she kept on doing this? At least she hadn't tried getting out of his apartment. That would have been extremely unwise. There were still people out there intent on finding her and ending her life because they thought she knew something.

Crime lords didn't want witnesses even if the witness happened to be a mere child. Children still had eyes and ears and could identify them or relay things they had done.

The next time he came into a room she was in and she spotted him she started to get up again, hiding whatever she was doing from his view. This made him curious enough to ask. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." she said.

Children were never good at lying.

"Then why are you trying to hide that?" he pointed to the thing in her arms.

"It's a surprise," she told him quickly, "You can't see it yet."

Huh, well that was an interesting answer and helped clue him into what she was doing. It made things easier for him now, as he realized whatever she was up to had to do with him. He was still curious but now he had no reason to worry about it.

Walter grunted in response to that and left the room, though he did glance over his shoulder long enough to glimpse her setting something colorful back down on the coffee table.

Interesting.

* * *

Alice worked most of the day on the project but hadn't finished it when she wanted to. When she knew it was time for her to be getting ready to go to bed so Walter could go out she collected the pieces and hid them where he couldn't see them.

Walter on the other hand didn't ask her about it as he had figured out she was making him something that was a surprise.

What he didn't know, was Alice fully intended to finish it that very night and after he'd become Rorschach again and left, Alice had climbed out of bed, took the project out from under her pillow and got back to work on it.

Rorschach meanwhile had returned to the home of the man Anthony had named as someone who knew where to find Giovanni Fiorrna. The party from the night before had ended hours ago and now the block was quiet. The masked man stood on the sidewalk for a moment, studying the exterior and working on the best route on getting inside.

Going through the front door was out of the question as it would attract too much attention so he walked around the side of the building to find a different route.

After some searching he found an unlocked window. Good, now he wouldn't have to pick a lock to get inside. He opened the window and climbed in, finding himself in a kitchen. It was large and spotless. Obviously this man got enough money from selling illegal drugs and weapons to afford a maid.

Rorschach closed the window and crossed the room, being careful to not make a sound as he entered the rest of the house and began his search. He didn't just look for the man who lived there but also anything that would help his investigation. He went into the man's office and rummaged through all his desk drawers and file cabinets. What he didn't find there he would get out of from the man himself.

There were a few interesting things in the man's office,mostly involving illegal drugs sales and human trafficking but nothing about his person of interest. Either way he memorized most of them and pocketed a few just in case he needed something to blackmail the man with if he refused to cooperate.

Once he'd finished up in the office he put everything back the way it was and moved on upstairs. Hopefully his target was home, though he was pretty sure he was since he'd seen a rather fancy car parked outside.

With careful steps, so not to make a sound, he made his way upstairs, his eyes and ears open. He was sure nobody had seen or heard him enter but he could never be too careful. He'd let his guard down once before and it had nearly gotten him killed. He wouldn't make that mistake again.

Once he reached the landing for the second floor he paused, listening carefully. He thought he heard the faint sound of a TV coming from one of the rooms further down the hall. He headed for it, though he remained cautious. No point dropping his guard now, not with his target only a few feet away.

Upon reaching the room the sound the sound was coming from he paused again,listening, then slowly reached out, grabbed the doorknob and carefully pulled it open. The door opened with only a very faint creaking sound. Rorschach cautiously peeked inside and looked around.

He spotted the person he was after laying in a fancy bed, as the TV resting against the wall played some raunchy film. Even from there the man could hear him snoring loudly which was actually a blessing. The volume of the TV mixed with the snoring would cover whatever sounds he made.

Rorschach still remained cautious as he slipped into the room. He went over to the TV and switched it off. The room was plunged into darkness.

The man on the bed instantly woke up, muttering sleepily. "Hey, what?"

"Arnold Fairbanks." Rorschach voice spoke from somewhere close to the bed. "I've come for you."

Then he lunged.

* * *

Alice finished up the the project, smiling in satisfaction at the finished product. She couldn't wait for Rorschach to come back from wherever he was so she could give it to him.

After setting the gift into a box she went over to the window and looked outside as if expecting to see him coming down the alley to the fire escape. Sadly she saw nothing but an empty alley full of trash cans and dumpsters. No masked vigilante's in dirty trench coats.

"Oh well..." she sighed, stepping away from the window and over to the box. "I can wait. I should have known he wouldn't be back yet. Super heroes have a lot to do to save the world from bad people. I can't make him hurry by being impatient."

The girl picked up the box and headed into the bedroom with it. She pushed the box under then bed then climbed onto the mattress and pulled the covers over herself. She looked at the window in the bedroom, too excited to sleep as she wanted to give him her gift as soon as possible. She was sure he'd like it and maybe even get him to smile.

But first she knew he had to go out, help people, and maybe even find out who was behind the murder of her mother.

Alice curled up into a ball, hugging the little doll Rorschach had bought her to herself. If that was why he was taking so long to come back then she should appreciate it. After all he didn't have to do any of that, he really hadn't needed to take care of her either as he could have left her at the police station. But he obviously wanted to.

She remembered he'd mentioned that her mother had asked him to. maybe he had promised to do so, even though she probably made him wish he hadn't sometimes. Maybe he wasn't so mean and scary like she'd first thought.

"After all," she whispered to herself as she dozed off. "Bad people don't do good things for people..."

* * *

Rorschach had taken the man completely by surprise. He hadn't even been able to react in any way as the masked vigilante landed on top of him and clamped a hand around his throat. "If you want to keep your face in its proper order you will tell me everything I want to know," he hissed in a sinister tone.

The thug in the bed made an obnoxious squeaking noise and he struggled feebly to get free from Rorschach hold. Even though Rorschach was much smaller and thinner than the other man he was also much stronger and of course could keep his victim in an unbreakable choke hold.

"Shut up!"

The thug stopped struggling.

"Now," Rorschach said."You're going to answer my questions, understood?"

His victim nodded.

"Good." he leaned closer, further invading the man's personal space. "Then tell me. Where is Giovanni Fiorina?!"

"Giovanni Fiorina?" the man asked, his eyes widening. "Why do you want to know where he is?"

"Personal," Rorschach replied. "Now tell. don't deny knowing. Told you knew. Give me information."

"don't know!"

"Liar!"

"No, no!" the man whined pathetically. "I am not lying!"

Rorschach was having none of it. He tightened his grip around the man's throat. When the man started gagging he hissed. "Tell truth! If you lie no problem with killing you, scum bag."

The man, who knew Rorschach reputation from word out mouth, knew the vigilante wasn't bluffing. He would kill him if he had to. He whimpered for a moment before nodding his head feebly.

"Good. Now getting somewhere."

* * *

"Out of the country," Rorschach muttered to himself as he headed away from the police station where he'd dumped a little "present" for the boys and girls in blue.

The man he'd questioned had told the man everything he knew about his intended target even the fact that the mod boss and his family were currently away on extended stay in Italy. He'd also told him he had no idea when they would be back. Rorschach had no reason to not believe him so he took the information as fact.

The only piece of good news was that he'd learned his intended target's local address so he fully intended to give the place a visit in the near future.

But that night was out of the question. The sky was beginning to lighten and he knew people would be getting up soon. . If it had been up to him he wouldn't have let the coming dawn deter him from his mission. but the lightening sky also meant his charge would also be getting out of bed. If she repeated the same process she had yesterday wanting breakfast she would wind up getting hurt which was the last thing he needed.

It was time to be heading back.

Rorschach returned to his apartment hours before Alice would have woken up. He climbed into the window,looking around and taking in the silence of the apartment. It was as it had always been and that made him a little nervous. He paused for a moment, scanning the room for anything out of place and then, after seeing and hearing nothing, continued inside.

Once inside he checked in on the girl who was still snuggled up on the bed. Same as the previous morning.

Nothing to worry about.

Good. So maybe he could relax for a little while or at least spend some time mentally going over all the things he had learned so far.

Taking off his mask and hat he flopped onto the sofa and rubbed his face tiredly. He had not slept the night before which was normal for him. Sleep was something he only did when his body basically forced it on him anyway. Even so he couldn't help feeling more worn out than usual. Maybe it was due to having to take care of a child as keeping an eye on her made him use up more than his usual amount of daily energy.

He couldn't really complain about it as he had brought this on himself, thus expending the kid from any blame. Kids were kids and thus acted like kids. He couldn't really yell at her and tell her to act more like an adult. She was only eight years old!

Of course he had to admit she wasn't exactly a handful. She was actually pretty well behaved which said a lot about her parents even if her father had been foolish enough to borrow money from known mob bosses.

It was a real shame that both of them had to be taken out the way they were. It always seemed that the decent people were the ones suffering while the scum continued to thrive. It was simply disgusting!

He sighed and shook his head. Even if he did manage to put the people behind the girl's parents murders to justice they would still be dead. She would still be an orphan. She would grow up knowing that the world is a terrible place and good people don't win. Ever.

It was a sad reality that an eight year old child should not be exposed to. Children should be allowed to be carefree and enjoy their youth without being forced to grow up quickly. This had taken that away from her. The girl would probably require a lot of psychological therapy in her later years.

But that was just how criminals were, they didn't care how many innocent people they hurt and if they had gotten their way they would have done more than just hurt the girl. She was lucky he'd stepped in when he had or she would have wound up just like her parents. Just another body laying in a freezer waiting for relatives to come and identify her remains.

Another unsolved case. Another murder the police wouldn't have the balls to pursue due to the only suspect being a notorious crime lord they claimed was untouchable.

Nobody was untouchable, he told himself, taking some sugar cubes out of his coat pocket and placing them in his mouth. Not to him anyway. He was one person who couldn't be buyed off or scared into silence. He would make this man pay, no matter the cost!

Just as soon as the monster returned to the country. If he were smart he would remain in Italy where Rorschach couldn't touch him.

"Won't happen," he told himself. "Got too much money invested in things here. Has to return. No choice."

Rorschach yawned tiredly before laying back on the worn sofa. He closed his eyes, intent on only taking a small rest before continuing with his responsibilities. The short rest turned into hours of sleep as his tired body betrayed him, making him drift into a deep slumber.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Walter Kovac's woke up to find a face staring down at him. Air hissed through his teeth and he sat up quickly only to realize that the face belonged to little Alice Blake. He calmed down instantly but demanded. "What?" as he wanted to know why she'd been standing over him. She should have known better after the first time she did that to him.

The girl fidgeted a moment, her hands behind her back then said in a tiny voice. "I have something for you."

She did? "Hmmm..."

Alice,thinking that meant hewanted him to show it to him, pulled her hands out from behind her back and handed him something wrapped in toilet paper. "I couldn't find anything else to wrap it in." she told him.

"What is it?"

"Well... you have to open it." she said, her eyes wide.

Walter took the paper wrapped object, a small box, and unwrapped the white wrapping then opened the small box the paper had been covering. What was inside was a round object that looked like it had been made from braided twisty ties and pieces of paper carefully glued to them with little drawings of animals. He stared at it, wondering what in the world it was supposed to be.

"It's a friendship bracelet," she explained, seemingly noticing his rather confused expression. He looked up at her and she stepped back a little. "I, um, you seemed upset and I wanted to make you feel better," she told him. "If you don't want it you don't have to keep it."

"Is fine." he told her, looking back at the little bracelet. It looked too small for someone his size to wear. He was a short man, yes, but it looked like it was only big enough to fit a child. He didn't point this out to her, as he knew she had worked hard on it and didn't want to hurt her feelings. It was obvious this girl was reaching out to him, even though he intimidated her, she was giving him more than just a silly item, she was offering him something more. It was rather touching. "Thank you."

The girl smiled.

He stared at her and her smile, an odd feeling forming in his chest. He really didn't know how to feel about this girl's gift. She had seemed so frightened by him and now she was suddenly wanting to be his friend? Why would she bother? He wasn't a nice person and aside from getting her a doll to play with, he hadn't done much to make her feel like he cared about her.

Sure he was going to put her parents' killer to justice but he did that all the time as he felt it was his responsibility to do so. He would have done that for anyone.

But this girl wanted to be his friend even though everything about him said "stay away". Nobody but Daniel had ever offered to be his friend and he'd basically rejected that. He didn't feel he needed friends as having friends meant the enemy could use them against you and play with your emotions. Friends got hurt. He didn't want anyone he cared about to be hurt so he'd spent most of his life not caring about anyone.

Even so this girl seemed to care about him. If she hadn't she never would have made this thing and her reaction to him accepting it told him all he needed to know.

She cared and he had no idea how to feel about it.

Walter put the small bracelet back into the box and set it on the table as he stood to head into the kitchento start breakfast. The little girl, still smiling, followed after him.

"I'm glad you liked your present," she told him."I worked so hard on it yesterday. I kept hiding it because I didn't want you to see it until I was done."

"Hnngh."

'What does hnngh mean?" she asked him.

Oh boy. Not this again.

"What does it mean?" she asked again, thinking he hadn't heard her.

"You ask too many questions."

That statement made her giggle a little. "My mommy used to say the same thing." and then she went quiet.

He glanced back at her, noticing the sad look that had crossed her face after she'd made that statement. He could see big tears starting to form in her brown eyes. He knew she was going to start crying again.

"Hey now," he turned to her and knelt down in front of her, putting his hands gently on her shoulders. He looked her in the eye, wracking his brain for something comforting to say to her. Until then she'd seemed to be dealing with their deaths pretty well as she hadn't done much crying at ll the past few days. He should have figured children grieved differently. Just because she hadn't cried in awhile didn't mean she wouldn't again. "It will be all right. I'm going to find the people responsible and they will pay."

The girl looked at him and sniffled. She knew he was right but at that moment she didn't feel any better about it. She nodded, though, to show him she understood.

He knew his words hadn't done any good. She was still going to cry because her parents were dead. She didn't need words right now but actual comfort and he had no idea how to do that.

Hugging the kid came to mind but Walter hated physical contact, especially when it came to the intimate kind. It had always bugged him, partly because he'd never been given it by his own mother growing up. The last thing he wanted to do was that but in this case he would have to. Even if it put him out of his comfort zone.

So he did. He pulled the girl toward him and hugged her tight. She didn't react for a moment but then she wrapped her arms around his neck and began to cry loudly into his shoulder. He held her there for as long as she needed. Just allowing her to let it all out.

"Shh.. shh... every thing's going to be okay..."

Alice was quiet the rest of the day. The girl didn't talk all the much to begin with but now she had grown mute it seemed.

After she'd finished crying she'd pulled away and sort of went inside herself. Yes she still did things that people do routinely. Eating breakfast, using the bathroom, etc, etc, etc but other than that she just sat down on the sofa and kind of stared into space. Water despite himself, was actually beginning to worry about her.

He sat in the kitchen, watching from his position at the table as the girl sat on the sofa and did nothing. He felt it odd that right after she'd been so happy about him accepting her present she'd simply shut down after a brief mention of her mother. He wondered if after allowing herself to drop her guard the pain from her loss had suddenly gotten a chance to show itself.

Children were so confusing.

Walter glanced at the clock on the wall, noticing it was still very early. It wasn't even two o'clock yet. There was still a lot of the day left. So what should he do?

Walter did not want to spend his entire day in the apartment. Even when he wasn't out doing heroes work he hadn't spent a lot of time home. Before letting the girl there he'd gone out pretending to be a crazy vagrant. With the girl here he couldn't do much of anything because it wasn't safe to leave her home unless she was sleeping.

Maybe he should take her out for awhile?

No, he couldn't do that. Somebody might see them and it would lead to too many unwanted questions. He could always claim to be her father but they looked nothing alike and his neighbors would never believe such a story as they knew how he felt about human contact especially with women.

So what should he do?

He had no idea.

He knew he didn't want to hand around his home forever. Maybe he could still go out and take her with him just as long as he was careful not to run into anybody he knew. He could always leave the apparent with the girl by use of the fire escape.

Why not? It would be good to get her out for awhile. The gangs didn't know who he really was or where he lived so they wouldn't be out looking for an unassuming red head with a plain face. The girl on the other hand..

He looked back at her, studying her face. He might be able to make her less recognizable with a little work, nothing serious, just enough to make her look different. With that mind he crossed the room and knelt down in front of the girl When she looked at him he said. "Why don't we take a walk?"

* * *

The walk was just as quiet as things were in the apartment. The girl, wearing a dirty hat and over sized sunglasses, stayed close to Walter as they headed down the street. He'd told her to wear the disguise just in case even though it looked utterly ridiculous and he wondered why he'd even suggested it in the first place. If they didn't want attention that wasn't the way too do it so after walking a few blocks he took both of the things from her ,pocketing the glasses and wearing the hat himself.

Instead he told her just to put the hood up on her jacket which she did without a word.

They had gone quite a distance before the girl said anything. "Do you think my mommy will get a funeral?"

The looked down at her. That question had not been what he'd expected her to say and he wasn't sure how to answer it. "It's likely," he told her. "Do you have any relatives?"

"Yes," she said. "but they don't live around here."

"Where do they live?"

"Maine."

"Oh. So you have no relatives in the city then?"

"No." she sniffled. "I only ever get to see them at Christmas time."

"Hmmm..."

They continued walking in silence for a little longer before she asked. "What if they don't come to get her? What will happen to my mommy?"

"They will most likely cremate her body."

"Is that when they make the body into ashes?" she asked.

He nodded.

"I don't want Mommy to be ashes!" she exclaimed.

"You don't have much of a choice if nobody comes to claim her body," he told her. "It's just how it is."

"Bu that's mean."

Walter didn't bother arguing with her. Nothing he said would make her feel any better.

"Rorschach?"

He looked down at her. "What?"

"Do you have a mommy?"

"No."

"No?" she asked him. "Why not?"

"She's dead."

"Do you miss her?" she pressed, genuinly curious.

That question was very easy to answer. "No."

The girl stared at him with wide eyed, surprised by his answer. "You don't miss your Mommy?" she asked him. "Why not?"

She was doing it again. Bringing up things he would rather not talk about but he couldn't be mad about it. She was only a child. she didn't know any better. "Not all mothers are as good as your's was." he said finally.

"Oh." she nodded slightly as if she understood. "Was she mean to you? Did she hit you?"

He really didn't want to talk about it. "Yes."

"I'm sorry." her little hand reached up and wrapped around his, giving it a squeeze.'I'm sorry you had a bad Mommy."

Walter stared down at her big brown eyes and felt the small comforting pressure of her hand on his. That little gesture said more than anything she could put into words. She really did mean it too and he had no idea how to feel about it so he said nothing, choosing to simply squeeze her hand back in response.

They continued their walk in silence.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The silence last for over a half hour as the two walked through the streets. As they walked, Alice kept glancing up at Walter and finally had to ask him about something she'd noticed quite a while ago.

"Why do you carry that sign?"

"What?"

The little girl pointed at the sign he had unconsciously brought with them when they had left the apartment. Taking it out when he was in his civilian clothes had become so second nature he hadn't even been aware he done it. "That sign." she said.

"Oh..." he lowered it slightly to get a better look at the message. THE END IS NIGH.

"What does that mean?" she asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

"What?" he asked, pointing at the sign. "You mean this?"

She nodded.

"It's just as it says," he told her as if it should be obvious.

Alice read the sign again. "Is the end really nigh?" she wanted to know. "and how do you know it is?"

"Just know."

"Do you really mean it?" she asked him. "Are you one of those street preachers?"

"No," he said. "I just carry it."

"Oh..." she looked around, noticing people were staring at them. "Do you always attract this much attention?"

Before he could answer someone shouted at him. "You should be ashamed of yourself, taking your kid out like that and forcing her to participate in your delusions!"

Walter frowned. This was exactly what he'd been afraid of. He squeezed her hand and started to turn to head back to his apartment. "Let's go."

They got out of there.

* * *

The two had gone a pretty good distance from the crowd when Alice started looking around, her gaze falling on a rather pretty brunette woman walking down the street. She didn't notice the girl as her attention was directed elsewhere and she seemed to be lost in thought.

Seeing her might have just something that would have been forgotten about within an hour but the woman then turned her head and spotted Walter with the girl and her expression suddenly changed.

"Hey you!" she shouted.

Walter, making annoyed face, turned his head to see who was yelling at him now. He looked like he might have said something but for some reason when his eyes fell on the woman, he froze.

"Hey you!" the woman shouted again, crossing the street toward them. "What do you think you're doing?"

His grip on the girl's hand tightened and he started walking again. He didn't get very far because she was suddenly in front of him, blocking his path. "I'm talking to you, buddy!"

"Hnngh." he frowned, looking up at the woman.

She continued to block him, hands on her hips and face full of righteous indignation. "What kind of father are you?" she scolded him. "If you want to get fanatical about your religion the least you could do was not force your own child into it! You think carrying that sign and touting your kid will make people sit up and listen?"

Alice stared up at his face, noticing his facial muscles had tensed up. Something about this woman was making him react out of character.

"Are you listening to me, buddy?" the woman demanded,poking him in the chest. "I could get you in a lot of trouble right now. Corruption of a minor is a crime. I have half a mind to turn you into the police right now and have child protective services come in and take your daughter away."

"Miss J-" he began but stopped himself before speaking again, his voice sounding strained. "It is not a crime what I'm doing. What will you have me arrested for? Holding a sign and taking a child for a walk? I can assure you I'm not corrupting her at all We are simply walking."

The woman obviously didn't believe that. "You are caring a sign that says THE END IS NIGH. You are doing more than walking."

"Carrying signs is illegal now?" he asked her. "It's not hurting anybody." The woman looked ready to argue some more but he cut her off. "If you are so concerned about illegal activities, miss, maybe you should turn your focus elsewhere. There are worse criminals lurking these streets so spare me your indignation."

He tightened his grip on Alice hand and walked off before she could say anything more.

As they headed down the street the girl looked up at him, noticing his face still seemed very tense. Whoever that woman was she seemed to have really gotten to him.

"Who was that?" she asked him once they were a couple of blocks away.

"Nobody." he told her. "Nobody important anyway."

* * *

Walter had taken Alice back to the apartment to get away from all the nasty looks he got from total strangers who thought he was brainwashing his "daughter" into being a fanatical doomsday preacher on the streets like he was. He didn't even bother telling any of those people she wasn't his kid at all because that would have only made things worse and someone probably would have called the police and told them a homeless religious fanatic had kidnapped a kid and was doing who know what with her.

Once they were back inside the apartment Walter set the sign down with a sigh and rubbed his face, annoyed. The walk hadn't done much good after all. Maybe he should have kept her there because at least then nobody would have flipped out about the sign. Then again he sign had caused the problem to begin with. If he went out with her again he wouldn't bring it,no way.

He heard a giggle behind him and looked over his shoulder.

Alice was standing there with her hands over her mouth, chuckling quietly into them.

"What?" he asked,frowning. What in the world was she laughing about?

The girl only shook her head, still giggling to herself.

He still didn't see what was so funny. As far as he knew nothing today had been amusing at all. "What is funny?" he asked her again.

She giggled some more than explained that people thinking he was brainwashing his kid was weirdly silly in a way and the look on his face when people accused him of doing so was pretty funny as well since all the time she'd been around him his face had retained the same stoic expression.

Walter still didn't see the humor in it but he don't argue with her. She was a little girl after all. Whatever amused her wouldn't make much sense to an adult.

"You're an odd child." was all he said.

She seemed to notice he wasn't finding anything about what happened funny and tried her best to contain her giggles. "I'm sorry," she told him.

He shrugged. "it's fine."

"Ok." she looked around a moment then said quietly. "I'm hungry."

She was hungry? He looked at the clock on the wall and realized it was nearly five in the afternoon and he remembered she hadn't eaten anything since that morning.

He headed for the kitchen. "what do you want?" he asked her, looking in the fridge. There wasn't much there as always but there was more than he usually had since he'd gotten more food to keep the girl from starving.

"Do you have peanut butter?" she asked him, coming into the kitchen and sitting down at the table.

Peanut butter? "I think so." He opened the cabinet and found some. It was in glass jar and looked a little old. He checked the expiration date to be sure it was still good.

He was in luck. It wouldn't go bad for another year.

Glad for that he got out the bread and opened the jar, making her a peanut butter sandwich as she watched him in silence. He could feel her eyes on him the whole time and it made him nervous. he hated when people stared at him like that.

Once he was done he handed her the plate and she took it, thanking him politely before she began to eat. He leaned against the counter, arms folded, and watched.

"Are you going out again tonight?" she asked him after she'd eaten half of her sandwich.

Walter nodded. He went out every night so he didn't know why she would be asking him. Maybe she had a reason for it. "why do you want to know if I am going out?" he asked her.

"I am curious," she said. "If you go out will you find the bad man who hurt mommy and make him go to jail?"

"I intend to," he answered. What he didn't say was that the man behind it all was out of the country and might not ever be back. If he told her that she would accuse him of breaking his promise which would only make things worse.

"Do you have to go out tonight?" she asked him.

"The more I go out the sooner I'll be able to put him to justice."

The girl went quiet again, munching away at her sandwich. She looked like she was thinking about what he said. For an eight year old she seemed to do a lot of thinking, Walter observed. It was a shame all her thinking was focused on the bad people who had hurt her family. She should be using her mind on other things but fate had ruined it all for her.

"What will you do when you finally find him?" the girl asked Rorschach.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Will you put him in jail?"

The man did not answer.

"Will you?" she asked him again.

He still said nothing. It was normal for a kid to ask that question when it involved bad people. Children seemed to think jail would end all the world's problems with bad people though most of the time it did little but slow them down. Walter would take are of the bad guy but it wouldn't be in the way the girl expected. He didn't say that though since he was sure she wouldn't understand his reasons for it.

"Are you going to make sure he won't do it again?" she asked him.

"Yes." he responded, glad for an easier question, though he did not go into detail on how he intended to do it.

His response seemed to satisfy her though and she went back to her sandwich.

When she finished she pushed the plate away and he too it, putting it in the sink. As he was turning back to her she asked him again."Are you going out tonight?"

Why was she still asking him that? "Yes."

"Could you not tonight?"

He glanced back at her, surprised by her request. "Why do you want me to stay in?" he asked her.

"I don't want to be alone here tonight." she stated.

Oh boy. Was she going to start being needy now? He thought she understood why he went out every night. "Have to go out," he told her. "You know that."

"I know," she said quietly."But I don't wanna be alone tonight." she sniffled.

Was she going to cry? Great, that was the last thing he needed right now. "Why don't you want to be alone?" he asked figuring he would just get right to the point and find out her reasons behind this request.

The girl looked at him with her big brown eyes. They were brimming with tears. "Because it's the anniversary of Blair Roche's death," she told him.

Her answer startled him. How in the world did she know about that? She was way too young to be aware of such things!

"Who told you about that?"

"Nobody," she said. 'I saw it written on you calendar."

He'd forgotten about that. He'd been remembering the day of his greatest failure for a few years now, though he didn't know why he did so. Maybe he'd done it just to remind himself of how awful humanity was, though he didn't need a calendar date to tell him that.

Walter glanced at the calendar and sighed. It made sense now. The girl probably had no idea who Blair was but she seemed to know that whoever she was she was important.

"Hnngh."

"Was she your girlfriend?" the girl asked him.

Walter looked at her. "Who?"

"Blair." she said, pointing to the calendar on the wall. 'She must be important since you marked it. Were you in love with her?"

"No," he stated, quick to correct her. "She was not my girlfriend. I have never had a girlfriend."

"Then who was she?" she wanted to know.

He went over to the calendar and took it off the wall. "I don't want to talk about it," was the answer she received as he walked out of the room with it.

"Why not?" she inquired.

"I just don't," he responded, hoping she'd take a hint and let it go.

Alice went quiet for a moment as if she really was going to do just that but then she spoke up again. "She must have been important to you," the girl said in a quite voice. "Why else would you have marked her on her calender..." she got up and followed after him.

He dropped the calendar in a trash can without a word. "Hey!" she exclaimed, retrieving it. "Why did you do that?" she looked up at him. "Is it because I mentioned it? I'm sorry! I didn't meant to upset you!"

Walter looked down at her, frowning. She stood there, hugging that calendar to her chest, eyes wide and resting on him. She looked like she was about to start crying again. That was the last thing he wanted from her and he felt a little bad.

Why had he reacted like that just because she'd seen the date on the calendar? It shouldn't be a big deal. The girl didn't even know the story behind it and he didn't want to tell her even if she continued pressing.

All she'd wanted from him was to stay home with her because of it. Maybe she'd thought it would be a good idea to do so? Instead of fighting crime just taking a moment to mourn that little girl he'd been unable to save.

It wasn't like he do much else. The past times this date had come along he'd made sure the criminals he'd taken out had something to do with the harm of children. Even this year he was doing the same thing even if he had to wait awhile. In fact right now he had a child, Alice, whom he intended to protect from harm. It was a little ironic really.

Walter reached out and gently took the calendar from her. He looked at it, his face a stoic mask. His mind played the events of that night once more and he again asked himself what he could have done differently to change it.

Maybe if he'd been more forceful earlier, maybe if he'd gotten there sooner that girl would still be alive. She'd be home now with her family, continuing her childhood without a care in the world...

He grunted and closed the calendar, setting it on the counter and turning away from the girl so she couldn't see his face. To further hide his feelings he opened the refrigerator door and grabbed the first thing he saw. It wasn't until he'd closed the door and opened it that he realized he'd taken out the box of baking soda. He stared at it a moment then put it back in the fridge, feeling Alice's big brown eyes on him the whole time.

She asked him again. "Will you be staying in tonight?"

Not that question again. He considered ignoring her question again but knew if he did she would just keep on asking him until he gave her an answer. It wouldn't hurt anyway. He turned to her and saw her waiting patiently for him to give her an answer.

"All right," he said after pausing a moment. "I'll stay in tonight."

The girl smiled and moved over to give him a hug."thank you," she said. "thank you very much! I'm sure Blair will be very happy too!"

"I'm sure she will..." he said quietly. "I'm sure she will..."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The night was spent rather peacefully. Rorschach was a little antsy from not going outside and breaking faces, but he had promised the little girl he'd stay in that night and he would. Of course the girl tried to get his mind off that by asking him questions, even if they were a little too invasive.

She kept asking him questions about Blair and why he chose to remember the day she died and he did his best to not give her any information. She didn't seem to be aware that it was a touchy subject and he was partly to blame for that because he didn't come out and tell her. Maybe it was because he figured if he told her that she would just ask even more questions.

Alice, to her credit, seemed to figure it out all on her own and eventually stopped pestering him about it. Instead she started to change the subject.

But just as she opened her mouth to do so there was a loud crash from the apartment next door. She gasped and jumped out of her seat, freaked out by the sudden sound.

Walter on the other hand wasn't the least big concerned about the noises as they were basically a normal occurrence. The only thing that surprised him was that it hadn't happened sooner.

He looked at her then at the wall before saying. "Don't be bothered, It's just the neighbors moving their furniture."

Which was basically true. The couple next door had loud fights with always ended with them throwing things at each other. When he'd first heard it he thought something worse had been going on, as in a husband abusing his wife but then he'd come to realize the two never once laid a finger on each other during their fights. It almost seemed like their arguments were what kept them together.

Romance was such a foreign concept to him.

Alice stared at the wall, eyes wide. "Are you sure?" she asked him.

"I'm sure." he responded.

The girl looked back at the wall as more sounds assaulted her ears. Whoever those people were they sounded like they were having a war. The girl moved to the farthest end of the sofa and sat down again, her eyes on the wall.

There was a pounding on the door just then. Alice looked at Walter who looked back at her. he hadn't been expecting any visitors. "Better go in the bedroom."

She did so as he got up and went to answer the door. The landlady was standing there glaring at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Whatever you're doing in there," the woman said, glaring at him. "I want you to stop."

He stared at her without any expression. "Not me," he told her, his face a blank. "The neighbors. Why would I be making that much noise? In the time I have lived here have I ever made a ruckus?"

She had nothing to say about that but he could tell by the look on her face she wasn't happy that he wasn't the one responsible. He knew she'd been looking for a reason to throw him out for a long time and so far she hadn't been able to come up with anything. Her life must be very miserable if she was so obsessed with getting rid of him.

Walter said nothing about that though he simply told her in a flat voice. "If you wish for the noise to end speak with the ones responsible." before closing the door in her face before she could say anything more.

Alice came back out after he'd closed the door and asked. "Who was that?"

"Landlady," he replied, heading back to the sofa. "Thought it was me making noises."

"Oh..."

"Hnngh." he sat down on the sofa without another word.

The girl left the bedroom and went to join him on the sofa. For a moment the two sat there quietly, each lost in their own thoughts until Alice looked at him and asked out of nowhere. "How old are you?"

Well, that was unexpected. "Why?" he asked, glancing down at her.

She stared at him, her eyes wide. "I wanna know. Mommy was thirty," she said. "and my Daddy was thirty two. I'm eight."

"That's nice." he didn't know how that had anything to do with him or his age.

When he didn't tell her his age she made a face and continued to pressed him on the matter. "How come you won't tell me your age? Don't you like your age?"

"I'm old enough." he stated, wishing she'd let it alone. What in the world had possessed her to ask him such an invasive question and at this very moment?! "Not your business."

"I know," she admitted which clued him in that she just didn't care if asking him such a thing was being nosy or not. "I'm just curious. Mommy says if a person refuses to admit their age it means they're at the time in their life when they don't want to feel old."

"Only women do that." he said.

"How do you know?" she asked him.

"I just do."

"Then why aren't you telling me your age if guys don't care about such things?"

She wasn't going to let up until he told her. He sighed, figuring telling her it wouldn't be a huge deal, it would make her stop pestering him about it anyway. "Thirty seven."

"Really?" she asked. when he nodded she said. "You don't look that old. You look younger."

She was giving him a compliment though he didn't feel flattered by it. "Thanks..." he said anyway.

There was another thump and the girl looked back toward the wall.

"Looks like the fat whore didn't bother telling them to stop," Walter remarked bitterly. "Seems she only cared about it when she thought I was responsible."

"I'm sorry," the girl said,looking at him.

"Not your fault," he informed her, getting up off the sofa. "Just doesn't like me very much, you know. Wants to get rid of me but can't find any good reason to yet. Will one day and will have no great glee in doing it."

"Why does she have to be like that to you?" she wanted to know. "What did you ever do to her?"

"Nothing," he told her. "Just doesn't like me is all. Never has. Her problem, not mine."

"Well she's not very nice," she responded. "I don't like her. She seems to be a very mean person."

"Doesn't matter," he said, looking out the window with a far away look on his face. "Not a big deal."

Alice didn't believe him but she said nothing. It was a good thing she didn't as she was only projecting her own feelings onto him. Walter honestly didn't care about his land lady or what she thought of him. She didn't know anything about him or the things he did. He was doing more for humanity than that fat whore could ever dream of and she was so selfish that the rest of the world meant absolutely nothing to her.

That was just how it was.

The girl got off the sofa and joined him by the window, still saying nothing. She stared out, her eyes on the wall of the apartment next door. She looked up at Walter then back at the wall, realizing that whatever he was seeing wasn't the wall but something else altogether.

Maybe he was seeing the world and all the horrible things about it, maybe he was even thinking about Blair, she didn't know but she was afraid to ask him. Instead she merely reached up and took his hand. When he squeezed it in response she felt a little better.

"She was about your age," he said suddenly.

Alice looked up at him. "who?"

"Blair," he replied.

"Oh..."

"Some scum bag kidnapped her believing her father was related to some rich family but it wasn't true. I went out to find her after promising her family I would bring her home safe..." his voice trailed off and the girl wondered if he would continue or leave it up to her to figure out what happened.

The answer to that was easy. "But you didn't, did you?" she asked. "That's why you mark it on your calender."

He nodded, saying nothing more.

Alice felt bad for him. It must really hurt to know that not matter what you did you couldn't always keep your promises.

"I'm sorry," she told him.

"Not your fault," he told her. "Nothing anyone could have done..." but his tone seemed to say otherwise, as if he were blaming himself for what happened. It hadn't been his fault either, he'd done the best he could. She knew that but she could tell he didn't think so. She didn't say it though as she didn't want to upset him. It was best if they just left it at that.

So they continued to stare at the window, no other words passing between them.

* * *

The rest of the night was uneventful and the two went to bed early. While the girl, curled up in a tiny ball on the bed, gripping the doll Walter had given her, fell asleep quickly the man could not get to sleep. His mind refused to settle down and he wound up laying on his back staring at the ceiling and thinking.

For awhile he relieved the events of the night everything had changed,from the moment he'd broken into the building, to when he'd seen those dogs eating the girl's remains to when he'd ensured the man would never do that to anyone else ever again.

The memories were unpleasant and he forced himself to push them to the back of his mind where they belonged and instead focused on a different little girl.

He couldn't save Blair but he could do all he could to ensure a similar thing did not happen to Alice Blake. There was so much he could do to ensure this child was able to grow up. He was already doing a decent job with it by keeping her in his care until he managed to take down the man responsible for the death of her parents.

Once that was all taken care of he could then take her to someone who would ensure she would find a good home. She'd mentioned she had some relatives living in Maine and surely by now they knew what had happened to her mother. Maybe they would take her in after this was all over. He couldn't risk contacting them now to get her as her enemies would surely find out about it and track the family down and murder them all.

He sat up and looked down at the sleeping child. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully, her face angelic and innocent. "Don't worry," he said to her. "I will make sure nothing happens to you, I promise."

* * *

The next morning Alice woke up to find herself alone in he apartment. Startled, she got out of bed and rushed out into the living room discovering she was indeed by herself. She was about to panic but then noticed a note sitting on the coffee table addressed to her.

 _Alice,_ it began.

 _I will be out today. There are things I need to take care of involving the deaths of your parents. I will be back later when I get what i need. If you're hungry I left the cereal box on the table so you don't have to climb on anything to get it._

He'd signed the note with the Rorschach symbol he used instead of his name.

Reading the note helped the girl feel better and she sighed, setting it down on the table. She headed into the kitchen and spotted the box of cereal was exactly where he said it would be. She smiled to herself and walked over to the table to get her breakfast.

As she at down to eat she wondered if he would be able to find out anything else about what happened. He'd promised her he would make sure the bad people who hurt her parents would be punished for their crimes which made her feel better but she wondered how long that would take. If he didn't manage to do anything about them it wouldn't ever be safe for her to go out in the world and someone her age didn't like being cooped up inside all the time.

She kicked her feet up and down under the table as she chewed her cereal. If only she could do something to help him but what could she do? She was just a little kid and useless. She couldn't even give him anything helpful to speed up his investigation.

"I wish I could remember more," she said to herself, reaching for the glass of milk she'd poured for herself. "If I could it would make him happy."

However she had no way of doing that as she could remember nothing that would be helpful. She finished her breakfast and put her dishes into the sink, still wracking her brain for anything that would helpful. Nothing was coming to her except what she'd already told him before and she was getting frustrated with her own memory.

"There has to be something," she said to herself. "There just has to!"

The girl headed back into the living room and picked up the doll that she'd set on the sofa when she'd come into the room earlier. She stared at it's painted on face, feeling useless.

"I wish you could tell me what to do," she said to it, hugging it to herself and climbing onto the sofa. She sat there with a sigh, snuggling the toy to her chest. "I wish I wasn't so useless..."

* * *

Rorschach, as Walter Kovacs and his insane street preacher sign,wondered past the home of Giovanna Fiorina his target. The large building surrounding the by the high spiked chain link fence looked deserted as the owner still had not returned from his vacation. But the reason for him coming by wasn't to break in but to get a feel for the face, find out ways to get inside quickly and easily and without attracting any attention. As he had broken into many high security places before this shouldn't be too hard to do, all he needed to do was find one weak spot, one place that wasn't as severely guarded as any of the other places. Once he accomplished that getting inside would be a peace of cake.

He stood at the front gate, sign gripping tightly in his hand and stared, eyes probing every single inch of the place for future discretion. From where he stood he could spot a few areas that might be easy to breech but he needed future scrutiny to be sure so he moved on, studying the place from different angles.

Secure, but as he'd observed previously there were a few places he could get into if he was patient and very careful which was good for him but bad for his target.

The man continued walking, heading away from the building now. There was nothing more he could do that day.

* * *

Alice was sitting at the window when he came into his apartment. She'd pulled a chair from the kitchen into the living room and was sitting at it with her back to him as she stared outside. He closed the door and walked over to her, wondering what she was doing.

The girl must have heard him shut the door because she turned her head as he started toward her. The look on her face was that of utter relief when she saw who it was. She didn't say anything but did give him a little wave.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Nothing." she said. "Just sitting here, thinking."

"What about?"

"How I can help you." she replied.

Oh.

"I want to help you catch the bad people who hurt my parents," she explained. "But I can't remember anything that would be useful." she looked like she was going to start crying.

Poor kid. "It's fine," he told her gently.

"It's not fine!" she exclaimed. "I am useless and I can't do anything right. I'm nothing but a burden on you!"

Walter said nothing, not because he agreed with her but because he didn't know what to say to make the child feel better. He was sure if he told her the opposite of what she believed she would say he was only saying that to make her feel better. Poor kid.

So he knelt down and placed his hands on her shoulder, looking her in the eye. "Alice, you have done the best you could," he told her. 'If you can't remember anything it's not your fault. You can't be expected to remember those things, you're only a child."

She rubbed her eyes. "But you need to know things," she protested. "I just want to help."

"You have," he said gently. "Thanks to you I have managed to discover some very important information. It won't be long before I can make sure the bad men responsible for what happened pay for what they did."

She sniffled. "Really?"

He nodded. 'Really and it's all thanks to you."

Her sniffles quieted down and she looked at him with utter appreciation.

"Thank you." she said, with a small smile.

"Nnngh."

She looked like she wanted to hug him but she didn't. Instead she turned back to the window and looked back outside. He joined her, peering out but seeing nothing of interest. What in th world was she looking at?

Maybe she wasn't seeing anything in reality. She might just be seeing things in her mind and looking out the window was just helping her to think. He'd done the same quite often so he didn't bother asking her what she was doing since it was obvious.

"Did you find out anything else about the bad people who hurt my parents?" she finally asked him.

He glanced down at her. "A little."

"What did you find?" she asked.

That it should be pretty easy to get into his house when he returns from Europe, he thought but didn't say. "Nothing that I use right now," he said instead.

"Oh..." she looked up at him."how soon do you think you can use it?"

"Pretty soon," he told her.

"I hope so."

Walter did too.

"What are you planning on doing?" she asked him.

"About the bad people?" he asked.

The girl nodded.

"I told you before," he reminded her, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving it a slight squeeze. "I'm going to make sure they don't ever do something like this to anyone ever again."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

While Alice sat in the living room and worked on some more pictures with some paper Rorschach had given her the man was in his bedroom, catching up on his journal. He hadn't written in it since the night he'd taken the girl in and he felt it was time to do it. Not because he felt any need to record his life or anything, but to get his thoughts written down where he couldn't lose them. Unfortunately his thoughts kept moving to the child in his living room.

 _Child feels useless. Can't help with investigation. Chances high that child will try something to change that. Have to figure out a away to prevent that._

He glanced up from his dictation at the girl sitting in the living room. She was still focused on her drawings.

 _Will have to keep a closer eye on her from now on._

He closed the journal and got up to head back into the living room. He came up behind the girl and noticed that she was making those dark drawings again but this time it looked even worse. He wasn't sure what it was supposed to be but it seemed to show some kind of monster with awful teeth eating people.

He wondered if he should ask her about it but decided against it. He would probably regret it if he did. She might just be drawing those things as a coping mechanism. He could only guess that the monster in the picture represented the bad people who killed her parents and the people were her parents. It was pretty unsettling.

He didn't blame her for it though, she was just a kid, a kid thrust into a horrible situation. It was normal for children to have some dark thoughts after something like that. Completely normal.

The girl, as if sensing his presence, looked up at him just then. "Are you finished writing?" she asked, having seen him sitting in his bedroom with his journal in his lap.

"Yes," he responded.

"Good." she did not ask him what he had been writing as it was not any of her business anyway.

"Hnngh."

"You do that a lot," she observed. "Why?"

He shrugged, once again making that sound which made her giggle.

He frowned and she giggled once more before turning back to her drawing. "Must be a nervous habit," she remarked. "My daddy had one. He used to bite his fingernails."

"Hnngh." he stepped around the sofa and sat down beside her. "What other things did your father do?" he asked her.

She paused for a moment and thought about that. "Well he liked to drink a lot of coffee," she made a face. "Mommy always told him drinking too much of it was probably why he had insomnia. I never liked when he made it, it smelled bad."

Walter didn't make any remarks about coffee. He'd drunk it a few times himself though he hadn't really acquired much of a taste for it.

The girl started on another drawing. "Maybe mommy was right," she continued. "But Daddy told her that he had insomnia for other reasons."

"Hmmm...what would those reasons be?" he wanted to know.

"I don't know." she started drawing some people. It looked like a family. "but Daddy was always worried about things."

This remark piqued his interest. "What kind of things?" he wanted to know.

"The bad people," she said, scribbling away. "He was worried about them because he owed them money."

"Hmm... so what did he do when he couldn't sleep?"

"He spent a lot of time walking around," she said. "He'd just pace back and forth and talk on the phone sometimes. I saw him doing it a few times. He looked upset a lot. Mommy was worried about him."

Walter was pretty sure he knew why her father was doing those things but he couldn't be sure unless the girl actually confirmed it. For the moment she seemed to just be talking randomly and he let her continue, sure she would eventually say something helpful.

Alice drew a sun in the sky and spoke in a sad voice. "I wish those bad people hadn't made Daddy unable to sleep. He was paying them back, I don't know why they kept on threatening him. He was a good Daddy, he cared about us and only wanted us to be happy."

"Alice..." he thought for a moment before asking. "Do you know why your father borrowed money from those people in the first place?"

"He needed it to start his business," she said. "Daddy always wanted to own a bakery and he needed the money to fulfill his dream. He wasn't able to get a loan at the bank so he went elsewhere to get the money." she started drawing a tree. "Mommy told him it wasn't a good idea but he said he wanted to make a better life for us. He wanted to make sure Mommy didn't need to be a waitress anymore and I could go to a good school." the girl let go of the pencil and started to wipe her eyes. "He just wanted us to be safe and happy."

Walter felt bad for her. The girl's father had done the wrong thing for the right reason and ended up paying for was a horrible end to what could have been a happy story. A good man who made bad decisions. It had been a mistake he'd wound up paying for with his life and then his wife's as well.

What a shame.

Alice finished up her picture and set it aside before she turned to the man and climbed onto the sofa to sit beside him. She looked like she wanted to say something to him but didn't know how to word it.

He decided to try to help her. "What is it?" he asked.

"Daddy used to get things in the mail," she said finally. "I don't know what they were but he seemed upset about it."

This was new. He asked. "What did he do with those things?"

"I don't know," she said. "I don't think he threw any of them away though."

"Do you think those things might be at your apartment?" he asked her, getting an idea.

"Maybe. but she didn't look sure at all.

He got up. "Why don't we go to your apartment and find out?"

* * *

Alice's family's home was near the same block as Nite Owl's. This was an odd coincidence and a little surprising. They'd lived so close to another costumed hero and he had never bothered to do anything about the problem, even though heroes had only recently been forced to retire.

Anyway little Alice and Walter Kovac's in full Rorschach attire stepped up to the building.. Alice, who had a key to the place in her jacket pocket unlocked the door and the two stepped inside.

The place was warm and welcoming, nicely furnished with tasteful furniture and thick carpeting. Inexpensive paintings of flowers and landscapes adorned the blue papered walls. The carpet and living room furniture was also blue while the coffee table was a nice mahogany with cup holders placed on each corner. In the center of the table was a bowl holding wax fruit.

Alice had paused when she came into the home and he saw tears welling up in her eyes. She crossed the room over to the sofa and picked up a stuffed bear she had set there before she and her mother had gone out on that fateful night. She hugged it to herself and buried her face in it's soft fur.

Rorschach watched her suddenly feeling that maybe it had been a bad idea to bring her with him. Obviously being there was painful for her. But it was too late now.

They were both there and they had more important things to do.

"Where is your father's office?" he asked her as a way to distract her,

The girl looked up at him. "Oh," she said, setting the bear back on the sofa. "it's upstairs." she started for the stairs. "this way."

The girl led him upstairs to the office which was in a room facing the front street. It was nicely furnished as well with a painting of Washington and his army crossing the Delaware and bookshelves along the wall behind the desk. There were file cabinets along the left wall but Rorschach only cared about the desk. He crossed the room and pulled open the drawers, rummaging through them for the mail Alice had told him about.

As the vigilante searched Alice wandered off, heading into her parent's room which was down the hall. She stepped inside an then climbed onto their bed, curling up into a little ball near their pillows. She hugged them to herself and cried.

Rorschach finally realized Alice wasn't in the room and left the office to go looking for her. He didn't want her wandering out of his line of vision so he moved pretty quickly, finally finding her in her parent's bedroom. He then stood in the doorway, staring at the little girl curled up in a sad ball on her parent's bed.

 _Poor kid,_ he thought, feeling bad for her. He knew bringing her along would wind up being too painful for her but maybe this was something she had needed. Being in this place gave her a chance to hold onto what remained of her parents and allow her to properly mourn. He turned away and headed back toward the office, choosing to leave her alone to do just that.

He went back to the desk and opened another drawer, rummaging through it in search for the mail. He eventually found and envelope and picked it up, getting a good look at it. He recognized the return address, this was exactly what he'd been looking for.

He opened it and read the contents which turned out to be a rather threatening letter. Not only was it listing off things it would do to Alice's father but also what would happen to his family. It was disgusting. No wonder Walter Blake hadn't been able to sleep.

Rorschach crumpled up the note in his hand, more determined than ever to bring the people behind all of this to justice.

He continued looking, knowing only one letter wouldn't be good enough proof as it could be easily dismissed. He would need more though he wondered why the police hadn't come to the house to investigate. He figured this hadn't happened since both the murderer and the victim had both been in the same place and it was basically an open and shut case.

Sad.

Eventually he found a few more of the same kind of mail and quickly pocketed them. He then decided it might be time to go and left the office to retrieve Alice from her parent's bedroom.

He found her in the exact same spot she'd been laying before, still curled up on the two pillows but now she was facing away from him. He hesitated for a moment, not wanting to disturb her.

"Alice," he said softly. When she looked up at him he continued. "It's time to go."

She hesitated, making it obvious she didn't want to leave.

"Come," he continued. "I have what I came for."

She held back for a moment longer then slid off the bed. She started toward him but then turned and grabbed a picture of her parents off the nightstand. She then went to him, hugging the picture to her chest.

Rorschach said nothing about it. She could have the picture. If it brought her some comfort who was he to deny her that?

Once she was close enough to him he reached out and took her hand and the two headed back to the front door downstairs to leave. They never got to leave the house together.

Just as the two reached the bottom of the stairs and headed into the living room Rorschach was hit by a powerful blow to the chest that made him let go of her hand as he was thrown off his feet and slammed into the wall.

Rorschach crumbled to the floor, briefly winded. He didn't stay down long because he was instantly alerted to Alice's screams. He lifted his head just in time to see a large man who looked nearly seven feet tall grabbing the girl up from the floor.

 _No!_

He instantly was up and rushing the large man, not giving a care about personal safety, he only cared about protecting the girl.

Rorschach lunged at him, catching the man off guard. He tackled him to the ground floor as the man let out a grasp and release his captive.

"Run!" the masked man shouted at the girl.

She didn't need further bidding. She turned and took off running.

The man he'd tackled grabbed him by the throat and yanked him up and off of him, slamming his back against the wall. "You're going to regret that, little man," the giant growled into his face.

"Not likely," he said in a complete monotone.

He grasped the man's hand in both of his and kicked out with his foot contacting the man's chest hard and nearly breaking his foot in the process. It was like kicking a brick wall!

The man grinned at him when he realized his kick did nothing. "You'll find I'm not so easy to take out than what you're used to." he remarked and then slammed Rorschach hard into the floor.

For a moment he lay there, stunned, but he quickly recovered, ignoring the pain in his body as he launched himself off the floor, dodging a blow from the giant in the process. He crashed into the man's back, knocking him over from behind before he could give chase after the girl.

"You sure are stubborn," the giant thug grunted.

"Compliment." Rorschach remarked, punching the man in the head.

The punk grunted, rolling onto his back and nearly crushing Rorschach underneath him. Luckily the masked hero released him and rolled out of the way before that happened. He quickly jumped to his feet, kicking at the man's head. His foot contacted the man's skull with a loud CRACK!

The man yelled in pain, grabbing his skull and falling onto his back. Rorschach saw his chance and grabbed a metal flower vase off the kitchen counter. He slammed it down hard on the man's head without a second thought, repeating the process multiple times, hitting harder and harder.

He would have killed the man if someone hadn't grabbed him from behind and yanked away from the thug.

He slammed hard into the wall and crumbled to the floor looking up to find another thug had joined his buddy. This new enemy had paused to check on his friend before returning attention back to Rorschach.

Rorschach dived sideways when the man punched at him, rolling on the floor then righting himself. He grabbed onto the bookshelf resting against the wall and yanked it over. The heavy shelf tipped forward and crashed onto the thug in a shower of books.

With both thugs taken out, he turned his attention away from them and started to go to look for Alice. He had to make sure she was all right. He stepped out onto the porch and started to call out for her. "Alice-"

A crashing blow to the head cut him off. He stumbled and reached out to grab onto the railing, trying to shake a galaxy of stars that had exploded into his vision.

Before he could recover he was grabbed by the back of the head and then his face was smashed into one of the support beams for the porch. He cried out as there was a loud crack as his nose was broken.

His attacker smashed his head against the pillar once more then let him go. His legs gave out on him and he stumbled over onto the floor of the porch, fighting back a dark veil that was starting to fall over his vision.

A boot slammed down onto his back, knocking him onto the hardwood floor. "Stay down, freak!" a voice shouted through the oncoming darkness. "Just stay down!"

"Forget about him!" another voice called. "in the shape he's in right now there's nothing he can do to stop us."

His attacker responded back. "Did you get the girl?"

"Right here. Now come on!"

The weight on his back lifted and he heard footsteps moving away. Rorschach lifted his head, seeing through the darkening haze two burly men shoving little Alice into a car.

 _No!_ Not again!

The masked man forced himself up and stumbled after the them. He hadn't taken more than a few steps before he stumbled and hit the ground. Groaning he lifted his head just in time to see the car pull away.

 _No no no nonono no!_ He weakly reached out his hand calling after the car. "Alice!" before losing consciousness and flopping limply onto the ground.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Come on! Hold still! How am I supposed to dress your wounds if you don't stop struggling?"

The voice brought Rorschach back to reality. His eyes flung open and he found himself staring into the face of Daniel the former Nite Owl. He let out a growling sound and shoved him away, pulling his mask down to cover his face, even though it had only been pulled up halfway.

"Well that's a nice way of saying thanks," Dan said sarcastically.

Rorschach muttered something as he looked around himself for a moment. He was in his friend's apartment, laying on the sofa. For a few seconds he didn't know how he'd gotten there but then it came back to him and he sat up.

"Alice!"

"Alice?" Dan looked at him confused. "Who is Alice?"

He didn't answer him, he simply got off the sofa and headed quickly for the door. Daniel blocked his way, preventing him from going anywhere. "Hold it."

"Out of my way, Daniel," he snapped at him, looking ready to fight him if he didn't.

"Not until you tell me what's going on," his friend pressed, speaking calmly, hoping th other man took the hint and did the same. "I think you owe me an explanation, especially after I helped you out."

"Didn't ask you to." the other man said.

"Maybe not," Daniel continued. "But I did and I would appreciate an explanation for why I found you laying on the sidewalk the way you were, looking like you'd been in a barroom brawl."

Rorschach paused for a moment, as if deciding what he should tell the other man before responding in a voice that said he wasn't happy about it. "Fine."

Rorschach sat back down onto the sofa at his friends encouragement then proceeded to tell Daniel all about the events of the past week from when he failed to stop the murder of Alice's mother to the ambush in the girl's house. His friend listened, asking questions once in awhile for clarification on a few things. When Rorschach finished his story there was a silence until the masked man demanded. "Well?"

"Well what?" Dan asked.

"Aren't you going to make some kind of comment" he demanded.

"No."

Rorschach just stared at him in surprise. He wasn't?!

"You were trying to help the girl," Daniel told him. "Which is rather surprising since you seem to always want nothing to do with anyone. I guess that girl must be special since you're going through so much to help her."

Rorschach looked away.

"But there's nothing you can do for her now," Daniel went on. "I think you should let the police take care of the rest-"

"The _police_?" Rorschach snapped at him, suddenly enraged. "The police can do nothing! They cannot touch that man! If you even mention his name to them they will look the other way, who cares if an innocent child loses her life? They're afraid of him!"

Daniel didn't have an answer for that. He should have known Rorschach would never agree to getting the authorities involved. He believed he was much better at punishing criminals than they were, especially after the Roche incident...

"But what can you do?" The other man finally inquired.

"What I _always_ do," Rorschach said, getting up off the sofa. "I'm going to rescue her."

"Do you even know where they took her?"

"Yes." He sounded so confident.

Daniel stared at him. "How do you know?" and then he realized asking such a question was silly. Of course Rorschach would know. He was one of the best detectives around!

"Because it's obvious," Rorschach told him. "Someone has informed that mobster scumbag what I am up to and somehow he figured out where I would be and that I would bring her with me. They planned it and now that he has the girl it's only a matter of time before he kills her." he clenched a fist. "I don't have any time to lose. I must get moving."

But Daniel had moved to block his path. "By yourself?" he asked.

Rorschach voice grew cold. "I don't have any other choice, Daniel. I am all that's left."

His friend winced at the subtle jab. This was true. There was nobody left but him. "But you can't-"

"What other choice do I have?!" he cut him off. "If I don't do it nobody else will. I promised that girl's mother I would protect her and I intend to keep it."

"But how?"

"The only way I know how," Rorschach looked ready to beat Daniel up if he didn't get out of his way. ""Now move it, Dan."

"Wait," Daniel said, staying put. "You really shouldn't go by yourself. You might need back up."

What gave him pause. "What are you getting at Dan?"

"I'm coming with you."

Rorschach stared at him, unsure that he'd heard him right. "What?"

"I'm coming with you," Dan repeated himself.

"You? I thought you happily retired."

His friend ignored the hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Well I didn't say I was going to go back to that," Daniel said, grabbing his coat and heading for the door. "I'm sure you want to get there as quickly as possible so I am going to give you a lift."

Rorschach stood there a moment longer, feeling slightly disappointed. "Oh." was all he said before he followed the other man out of the house.

* * *

Daniel pulled his car up in front of the Fiorina mansion but then pulled away quickly when Rorschach scolded him for being so obvious. He drove a few blocks away and then parked. He looked at his friend and said. "I'll stay here and wait."

Rorschach moved to open the door but paused for a moment before saying. "Thank you, Daniel."

His friend gave him a small smile. "Anything for a friend," he told him. "Now you better get going. That girl needs you."

Rorschach quickly left the car without further prompting. Closing the door and stealthily making his way toward the mobster's mansion. Daniel watched him move, praying silently to himself. "Good luck, Rorschach."

Something told the man his friend was going to need it.

* * *

Rorschach carefully made his way back to the mansion. He was headed toward the part of the fence he'd spotted the opening the previous day. Hopefully nobody had thought about it and amped up security there. Surprisingly they had not done so and he managed to get inside easily though his caution meter had gone up. It had been a little too easy which meant one of two things. They were dumber than he thought or they wanted him to get inside and were waiting for him inside that mansion.

He was going to have to outsmart them, there was no other option. If they wanted him to come in he would, just not in the way they hoped for.

Rorschach would avoid going into the house until he got a good idea of what he was going to be up against.

"I just have to make sure they don't run into me first."

He headed around the back, pretty sure he could gain the upper hand by doing so. If he was proven otherwise he could very easily get out of it before anything happened. He sure hoped he was right about that because if he wasn't it would end badly not just for him but for Alice as well.

"I'm coming, Alice, just hold on a little longer," he muttered to himself as he cautiously stepped around the back of the house.

* * *

Alice was inside the house, locked in a room on the second floor. She was sitting, curled up in a corner, hugging the picture of her parents and trying not to cry. After she'd been grabbed and forced into the case the thugs had brought her to the house and taken her to the room where they'd locked her in without a single word and then just left her there. She didn't know why she was there or what was going to happen to her but she did know she didn't want it to happen. She wanted to get out of there.

"Mommy, Daddy," she whimpered, still hugging the picture. "Mommy..."

She wondered if Rorschach was okay and if he was trying to find her. She hoped so though, she doubted he even knew where she was. "He'll find me," she whispered to herself. "I know he will."

Suddenly she heard footsteps moving down the hall and she looked up, eyes wide with terror. Somebody was coming!

She began praying it was somebody who was there to help her.

"Please," she whispered. "Please be a good person."

Whoever it was walked right past the room without even stopping. The girl sighed, relieved that it hadn't been a bad person coming to get her. But she knew even if that person hadn't been coming to get her somebody who came along in the future would.

Alice wasn't looking forward to that at all.

She curled back up into her little ball and prayed that someone would come and save her.

* * *

Rorschach discovered there were indeed a few people in the back of the house. They all seemed to be standing around, waiting for something to happen or someone. He pulled himself back around the corner and decided to wait a moment so he could come up with some kind of plan of action. They knew he was coming, that had to be why they were there and they wanted him to come after them.

He was going to have to do something about them, something unpredictable.

But what? He had no idea at the moment. He moved away from the area, being cautious so not to get spotted, his mind working through the problem.

There had to be an easier way to get into that house, he just had to figure out how.

Rorschach looked around himself, taking in everything and anything he could use to get inside. Unfortunately he wasn't able to find anything to get inside which meant he would have to get inside the old fashioned way.

Lovely.

The man turned back to the house and looked it over carefully once more. He noticed the vine trellis set up against the wall of the building where a large rose vine was growing. Instantly he knew what he was going to do.

Walking back to the house he grabbed the trellis and pulled on it very carefully to check on how sturdy it was. When the frame didn't tip or shake he was satisfied. Good. He looked around the side of the house to make sure nobody had heard him and he was relieved to find out they hadn't.

Returning to the trellis he gripped it tightly in his gloved hands and began to quickly and quietly climb up it.

 _Just wait a little longer, Alice. I'm coming to get you._


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Alice heard another person coming down the hall and tensed up again, fear coursing through her small body. Who was it going to be and would they come into the room to get her this time? She would find out soon enough but wasn't looking forward to it.

She'd made an effort to prevent it by putting something, a chair, in front of the door, but how she set it up would do very little to prevent it from being opened. She could be forgiven for that seeing as she was only eight years old.

The footsteps stopped in front of the closed door and she tensed, expecting the door to open up and the person to come inside. She hoped the chair she'd pushed in front of it would keep them out. Or she at least hoped they'd move along.

The doorknob started to turn and she curled herself up tighter in the corner, her eyes widening as they locked on it.

* * *

Nobody had caught Rorschach climbing the trellis and he managed to easily sneak into the house without any problems. It was a huge relief for him as it seemed he'd managed to outsmart the thugs outside the building as well as their employer by doing something they hadn't been expecting.

Now he was inside and moving cautiously down the hall, his senses on high alert for any sign or sound of his enemies. As he moved down the hall he carefully checked any closed doors, being sure to see if maybe just maybe the little girl Alice might be on the other side of one of them.

So far he'd had no luck but he wasn't going to give up so easily. There were plenty of rooms to go. He was just going to keep looking until he found the right room.

Eventually he came across a door that was locked. He paused, frowning under his mask. This was the first one he'd come upon that gave him any kind of resistance. This likely meant something was on the other side they didn't want to get out.

Alice?

He needed to be sure.

Taking a quick look in both directions to make sure he was alone in the hall, he began to work on picking the lock on the door.

* * *

The girl had to do something as she realized the chair in front of the door wasn't going to do anything. Alice got up off the floor and looked around for something to defend herself. Her eyes fell on a heavy book sitting on one of the shelves and she got up and grabbed it, holding it in her arms and getting herself ready to hit whoever was on the other side when they came in.

She just hoped she was able to actually hit the guy hard enough to do some damage. Since she was only a little girl if she did try hitting someone with it it probably wouldn't do much, not that she realized this. The lock clicked and the door started to open slowly, easily pushing the door out of the way. Alice stood back, holding the book above her head. She closed her eyes and braced herself.

Someone stepped inside and Alice screamed rushing at them and swinging the book. It hit the person pretty hard but aside from a mild grunt she did no damage whatsoever. She whimpered and dropped the book, falling over.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed.

"Alice." said a familiar emotionless voice.

The girl froze then opened her eyes, finding Rorschach standing over her, if he hadn't been wearing his mask she might have seen his face which looked mildly confused. When she saw who it was she let out a cry and got up, hugging his leg, relief washing over her. "I knew you'd come for me!" she exclaimed. "I knew it!"

Rorschach reached down and patted the girl's back. "Of course I would come," he told her. "I promised I would take care of you."

She looked up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Are we going to leave now?" she asked hopefully. "I don't like this place."

"We will," he assured her. "But first I have some things to take care of."

"No," she sniffled suddenly freaking out. "Let's just go. I don't want to stay here anymore!"

Poor kid. She was completely traumatized. Rorschach felt bad for her but he couldn't leave, not yet. "Alice," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders and getting down to her level. "I have to do this. If I don't want a repeat of this. I don't want that to happen and I know you don't either. Just please be patient, okay? I'm going to make sure this never happens to you or anyone else ever again."

Alice wiped her eyes, sniffling as she asked. "Promise?"

He seemed to be saying this a lot to her. "I promise." he looked toward the door. "Now I need you to do something for me."

"What is it?"

"Find some place to hide," he told her, looking back at the girl. "and don't come out until I come for you. Okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

"Okay, now hide." he ordered.

The girl rushed off to do just that as Rorschach left the room and headed off to find the mob boss. It was time to deal with him personally.

* * *

Daniel was waiting in the car watching the house when he noticed another car pull up in front of the building. He saw the doors open and some men jump out and rush toward the gate. It opened and they all rushed inside.

Daniel suddenly got a bad feeling. If those guys were moving that quickly their reason for being there wasn't good. For some reason he knew that they knew Rorschach was there. The man opened the door of his car and rushed toward the building. He had to do something and quick!

He just hoped Rorschach and the little girl he'd gone in to retrieve were okay.

* * *

Rorschach heard footsteps and paused to listen. Somebody was coming. He had to get out of sight to avoid being spotted until he was ready to put his plan into action.

There was a room directly to his left so he quickly ducked inside. He saw two men walk past him and around the corner. They were heading to the room where Alice had been. Rorschach waited. There was silence for a brief moment then raised voices yelling profanities and running feet. The two men rushed right past the room where he hid and pounded down the stairs.

The man slipped out of the room and moved on, knowing things were about to go to hell real soon.

That was okay with him. Hell was good, just as long as he had control of it this time. It wouldn't matter that much in a little while. Not after he was finished dealing with these people and they wouldn't be getting off lightly.

With the knowledge that Alice was somewhere safe from them for the time being he headed to the stairway, moving swiftly and quietly after the two hoodlums who gone on before him.

* * *

Alice could hear the men moving around the house searching for her from her hiding spot. She had found a false opening in the wall in the bathroom and had climbed inside, carefully pulling the panel back into the place. She sat inside the hole, hoping nobody knew about the hiding spot or even thought of looking in there if they did.

As she sat in there, waiting, she thought about Rorschach. She hoped he was keeping his promise and making sure the bad people were punished. She also hoped he was okay. After what had happened to him at her house she knew he wasn't invincible. She didn't want a repeat of what happened.

"Please be okay," she whispered. "Please be okay."

* * *

"What do you mean she's escaped?" Rorschach heard the mob boss Giovanni Fiorina snap angrily. "She was locked in there and there's no way an eight year old girl is clever enough to pick the lock and get free!"

The masked vigilant frowned. Wasn't this guy supposed to be out of the country? It seemed he'd come back early. Maybe he hadn't left at all and that story the one man told him had been a ruse this entire time.

"It's true, boss," the one man said. "She's not in the room anymore. When we got there the door was standing wide open and the room was empty."

Rorschach moved closer to the voices, still listening to their conversation.

"Then somebody let her out!" the man shouted. "and there is only one person skilled enough to do that."

"Who, boss?"

"Rorschach!"

"Rorschach? There's no way he could have gotten inside without being seen."

"Don't put so little credit on him," the mobster responded. "There's a reason he has a reputation. If she's out of the room he's responsible, which means we're going to have to find him and make sure he can never do it again."

"When should be start?"

"Now!" the man's boss ordered. "Get your useless butts in gear and find him before he has a chance to escape with the brat!"

"Right boss!"

Rorschach heard the pounding of feet and quickly ducked into the shadows. When the two men rushed by he stepped out of his hiding spot and headed toward the mobster's office. He then stood in the doorway facing the man who was seated at his desk.

"Giovanii Fiorine," Rorschach said. "I think you know why I am here..."

The mobster looked up startled. "R-Rorschach!" he exclaimed, his voice full of surprise.

Rorschach walked toward him, an intimidating figure. "Only scum bags hurt little girls."

"Now now," the man said suddenly looking and sounding much less threatening. "It's not like that at all. It's strictly business."

"Business?" Rorschach cut him off. "You murdered her parents even after her father paid you back all the money he owed you. You chased down his wife and daughter in an alley and tried to force the mother to become one of your whores." he slammed his hands down hard on the desk, making the other man jump. As he spoke the rest the black ink in his mask moved into a frightening pattern. "and _now_ you have kidnapped an eight year old child even though you have no real reason to do so. How is that business?"

The man tried sputtering excuses but Rorschach was having none of it. "Answer me." he hissed at him. "How is that business? What do you intend to do with her? She is _eight years old!"_

Giovanni seemed to be having a hard time coming up with an answer.

* * *

Daniel stood outside the gate, looking in at to the mansion where Rorschach and then the other men had all gone, wracking his brain in an attempt to come up with some way to help his friend without doing anything that would get him arrested. So far he was coming up with absolutely nothing and he was feeling frustrated. He had to do something, but what?

Now that being a hero was basically illegal there wasn't much he could do aside from call the police and let them deal with it. But he couldn't do that because he'd made a promise and Rorschach would never forgive him if he broke it. He would have to do something about it some other way.

The question was, what?

He leaned against the iron gate, trying to plan. Nothing was coming to him at that moment though. He was about to give up and head back to his car when someone called out to him.

"Hey! Hey _you_!"

Dan turned his head, startled by the voice.

He saw two rather burly men standing a short distance away giving him suspicious looks. The bigger one walked toward him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I umm..." Daniel was forced to come up with some kind of excuse as the thug approached him. He seemed to be drawing a blank and when the man stood in front of him towering over him by at least six inches his mind completely shut down. "Uh... I.. I was umm..."

"You were what?" the man demanded, cracking his knuckles. He looked like he'd love to knock Dan halfway into next week with those large ham sized hands of his. "and it better be a good reason."

He had to take a few seconds to come up with a good excuse. Except a good excuse wasn't coming so he was stuck just saying the first thing that came to mind. "Umm... do you have the time?"

The thug gave him a confused look. "What?"

* * *

Rorschach leaned dangerously close to the mob boss before him until their faces were nearly touching as he spoke in a dark voice. "Why don't you tell me what kind of business you planned to do with a child? Were you going to sell her into the sex trade? Make her a slave for some pervert to get their kicks?" his hands clenched tightly into fists. "Answer me!"

The mobster leaned back in his chair, still trying to come a coherent thought. So far he was drawing a blank. With Rorschach there was no proper answer, anything the man said would only anger him further.

Rorschach's voice took on a murderous tone as he continued to demand an answer. " _Well_?!"

Just when the guy seem about to answer Rorschach was suddenly stuck in the back of the head. Pain and stars exploded in his brain and he grunted, falling to the floor, unconscious.

For a second the mobster stood there a letting what just happened sink in then he recovered and smiled. "Good work," he said to the man who had hit Rorschach. "Now pick him up. When he awakens I want to have a little fun."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Daniel had to think fast to explain the reason behind his very odd request. He really didn't have any reason for asking that besides asking whatever came off the top of his head. Now he sounded like an idiot but that wasn't important now. He was going to have to just roll with it.

"I... umm... think I'm late for a job interview," he said thinking quickly. "I'm supposed to be in at four but my watch is broken. Can you tell me what time it is?"

The two thugs looked at each other and exchanged a look that basically said they thought this guy was crazy. But the guy closer to him turned back to him and said. "It's two thirty."

"Oh! Oh thank you very much!" Daniel said. "Now.. umm... can I ask another favor?"

"What?"

"Do you know how to get to the empire state building?"

The two men looked at each other again and then the bigger guy gave Dan a very annoyed look before yelling. "Get out of here, you nut case!"

Daniel backed off, deciding now would be a good time to be elsewhere at that moment. "Thank you!" he yelled, running back to his car.

The two guys looked at each other again as the bigger guy shook his head. "Weirdo."

* * *

As Rorschach began to come around awhile later his head pounded in agony from the blow he'd received from the coward who had sneaked up on him from behind. He opened his eyes, his vision swimming as he tried to focus. Everything was a huge blur and he couldn't seem to focus on anything just yet.

It wouldn't be for another few moments that his vision cleared and he could see again. What he found himself staring into however didn't make him feel any better. It was the ugly grinning face of a thug who was leaning way too close for his liking.

Rorschach started to take a swing at him but found he couldn't. His arms were pinned behind him and his wrists were bound with a strong rope. Upon becoming aware of that he knew instantly that he was now a prisoner due to being reckless. The grinning idiot laughed at him when he attempted to take a swipe at him then turned and called out to somebody. "Hey boss, the little freak is finally awake."

"Good." spoke up a voice form the person who was out of Rorschach line of vision. Rorschach then saw the man step into view. it was of course Giovanni Fiorina. he had his hands behind his back and he was grinning wickedly. "Have a nice nap, hero?" he asked, using the word "hero" in a mocking fashion.

"I've had better," he said flatly. "and they didn't end with me waking up to your ugly face."

"Oh a comedian." the man mocked.

"No, that's the other guy."

"Just shut up!" Giovanni snapped at him, flustered that Rorschach had ruined the moment with his dry wit. "you should be less worried about whether I get you mixed up with someone else and more worried about what is going to happen to you now that I have you and you can't do anything about it."

That statement really didn't ring completely true. Yes, him getting captured had been due to him dropping his guard but it didn't exactly mean his life was in danger. If he was given enough time he could easily turn this situation around.

He might not have enough time, unfortunately. Unless he managed to distract this guy long enough to free himself. That might not be as hard as it sounded, though.

"Not worried." Rorschach stated flatly. "Nothing you can do."

Giovanna looked at his buddy who then punched Rorschach in the face. He grunted, nearly blacking out again as his head jerked backward.

"What do you say now?" the mobster asked, grinning wickedly.

"Had worse."

"We'll just see about that." the man looked at his lacking who then proceeded to beat the masked hero to near senselessness.

* * *

Daniel sat in his car, watching the gate and feeling more and more antsy as time went on. Rorschach was taking too long! What was holding him? Had he not been able to find the girl? Had he been captured? His friend needed to know!

There was no way he could know though since he had no way of getting inside. The only action he could take is to call the authorities but he was aware if he did that Rorschach would never forgive him. He'd just make him feel even more betrayed than he already did after everyone else had retired after the passing of the Keene act.

Sometimes he wished Rorschach wasn't so stubborn out it! Things would be so much easier if he got the police involved in these things. They weren't all incompetent after all!

Rorschach thinks they are, he reminded himself. Which was why he was in this mess in the first place. Why did that woman even ask him to take care of her child when he could barely even take care of himself!

Because for some reason she trusted him. That was the only answer he could come up with for that question. The only answer that made even the slightest bit of sense.

Daniel sighed. None of that mattered now anyway. It wasn't like they could turn back time or something. It was time to focus on the here and now like how was he going to get Rorschach out of trouble?

Daniel's eyes fell on the keys sitting in the ignition. Hmm...

* * *

Rorschach could feel blood seeping from his nose. Giovanni's thug had nearly beaten him into next week. If he were a weaker person he would have lost consciousness a while he was stubborn and he'd been knocked out twice already and he wouldn't let himself have that happen to him again. That didn't mean he wouldn't pretend to be unconscious for awhile until he could think of a way to turn this situation around.

Giovanni was standing over him, looking very smug. "Not so tough now, are you?" he asked.

Rorschach lifted his head and looked at the man without a single word.

"Now, to answer your previous question about the girl," Giovanni said to him. "You don't have to worry about her. She will be taken care of."

"You mean you will make sure she suffers," Rorschach corrected, his voice dripping bitterness.

Giovanni shrugged. "It's strictly business," he told him. "Her father should have paid me back the interest."

"One cannot pay back scum if they are dead," he stated. "and you made sure of that, didn't you?"

"Aren't you clever?" the mobster snorted. "and so what if I did? That little wimp never would have been able to pay it off anyway. I did him a favor."

"You murdered him and his wife and left a child an orphan! That is not doing anybody any favors!"

"The child's mother would not have died if she had simply agreed to my terms," the man tried to justify it. "If she had taken me up on my offer she would still be alive today and the brat would not be without her parents."

"So now you intend to make that child pay for what her father failed to," Rorschach spoke flatly. "An eight your old girl who never did anything to anyone. How noble of you."

"It doesn't really concern you, Rorschach," the mobster told him. "and don't think you're doing any favors for her by hiding her. We will find her and once we do she will have to pay."

"You think you're so tough, wanting to harm a little girl."

"I didn't say I was going to harm her."

"You intend to sell her like property," Rorschach cut him off. "and you don't believe that that is harming to a child?"

"It doesn't matter that much to you," he responded. "You won't be around to see it anyway."

That's what Giovanni thought. Even now Rorschach was very close to free himself, he just had to keep this man talking for a little longer. "Even if I am not around there will be others."

Giovanni laughed."'Like who? The police? Rorschach, don't tell me you're that foolish. They will always look the other way. There is nobody who can do anything about this, not them and not you and once you're out of the way I will not have anything to worry about from now on."

Rorschach lowered his voice and the inkblot markings on his mask shifted as he spoke. "Don't cross bridge until you come to it."

"What is that supposed to-"

The rest of the man's sentence was cut off by the sound of crashing from outside. Giovanni stared at his underling's whose expressions mirrored his own. They all seemed to say the same thing. 'What in the world was that?!"

"Go and find out!" the man barked orders.

The other men in the room rushed off to find out with had happened while Giovanni remained behind with the prisoner.

* * *

Daniel had made his decision and put it into action before he'd given himself any time to consider the ramifications of it. Before he even knew what he was doing he'd started his car and hit the gas, driving the car headlong into the front gate the the mobster's mansion. He'd been driving so fast the car had smashed into the gate, knocking it clean off it's hinges, before slamming into the front wall of the building. The vehicle broke right through the wall and crashed into the livingroom.

Daniel had been smart enough to jump out of the car before it had careened into the building. He landed on all fours right in front of the two thugs who had dived out of the way to avoid being run over. He looked up to find the two standing over him, looking really ticked off.

"What in the world did you think you were doing, buddy?" the bigger one demanded of him. "Are you out of your mind?"

Daniel started to get up, thinking up an excuse that he hoped sounded logical. "I uh... I lost control," he stammered, brushing himself off. "It got away from me."

"That's not the only thing that's going to get away from you, four eyes!" the man growled, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and lifting him off the ground.

"Now now," Daniel stuttered, putting up his hands and making a face. "There's no need to resort to violence. You wouldn't hit a man with glasses would you?""

The fact the man was winding up to sock him in the face said he would hit somebody wearing glasses.

Uh Oh. Daniel hadn't even considered this kind of outcome to his plan. He would have to think fast before this giant rearranged his face.

Lucky for him the two guys who'd been with Giovanni inside the house came bursting out just then. "What happened?" the bigger guy demanded.

The thug holding onto Daniel turned to the other men and pointed at Daniel whom he was still holding onto. "This four eyed wimp drove his car through the gate!"

"What?!' the men came closer, looking very annoyed. The taller one gave Daniel an annoyed look. "I don't know if you know this buddy, but you just made the biggest mistake of your life."

Daniel realized at that moment that he was in big trouble.

* * *

Rorschach watched Giovanni, who had begun to look a bit nervous. He kept looking toward the door then at the masked vigilante then back again.

"Something the matter, scumbag?" Rorschach asked him. "Afraid you're about to lose everything?"

"Shut up!" the mobster snapped at him. "You just keep your mouth shut!"

Rorschach went quiet but not because the man had told him to. He still had to finish working himself free and talking to this guy only served to suspend the process. He kept and eye on the man, though, as he worked on getting himself free.

It wouldn't be long now. Just a few more minutes. He just hoped that that sound had been what he thought it was because if it wasn't he would be in trouble.

* * *

"Hey now," Daniel said, putting his hands up. "There's really no need start something. It was an accident, it could have happened to anybody."

"An accident?" the man holding onto his collar demanded. "That was intentional. I saw you drive straight for the gate. Don't try weaseling out of it, four eyes."

Well this wasn't working. "Okay, have it your way." he said before he head butted the guy in the face.

The thug yelled in pain, dropping Daniel who kicked him right in the stomach, knocking him over. He saw the other men coming and instantly turned on them, going into a fighter stance. Trying to bluff his way out of this hadn't done him any good, now was the time for the one thing these guys understood. A kick to the stomach and a fist to the face.

 _I sure hope you're happy, Rorschach._

* * *

Rorschach was nearly finished freeing himself when another one of Giovanni's thugs entered the room to tell him the news on what had happened. "Sir, some maniac crashed their car into your living room!" he reported.

"What?!" he snapped. "Who?"

"We don't know," the man replied. "Some wimp with glasses."

A wimp with glasses. Rorschach knew of only one person who fit that description. Daniel? Nah, no way he would be responsible but if he was... Rorschach smiled under his mask.

Perfect.

"Where is he now?"

"The last I saw he had head butted Arthur in the face."

"That doesn't sound like a _wimp_ to me! Go down there and do something about him!"

The thug ran out of the room without another word. Giovanni stood for a moment stewing then looked back at Rorschach. 'As for you-"

Rorschach was standing now and he held the rope that had been binding him in his hands. "As for me," he said. "Time to take out the trash."

Throwing the rope aside, he rushed at the mobster.

 _A/N_

 _I am getting close to the end of this story. How to end it, though, is the biggest problem I am having._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Alice was beginning to worry. It had been a very long time since she'd hidden in the crawl space in the wall and she was growing nervous. Why hadn't Rorschach come to get her yet? Had something happened? Was he hurt? Had the bad man done something to him?

She looked at the door of the crawl space, wondering if she should climb out of there and go looking for him. Would he want her to do that? Would it be wise?

"No, he'd want me to stay here and wait for him," she said to herself.

Alice would have to just wait, even if she didn't want to. So she did, pulling her legs close and wrapping her arms around them. She would wait. She just hoped he would come for her soon.

 _Please don't for get about me. Please be okay. Please come for me, I don't want to be here any longer. Please._

 _Please._

* * *

For a man who was out of shape and out of practice Daniel was having a pretty easy time taking out Giovanni Fiorina's thugs. It wasn't too long before he'd taken them out and was running into thew house to find his friend and the person he'd come there to rescue. Daniel just hoped he wasn't too late.

 _Please, Rorschach, don't murder anybody this time. Let the man live. The police will take care of the rest._

Who was Daniel kidding? Ever since the death of Blair Roch mercy was a foreign concept to Rorschach. If he wanted to prevent him from killing anybody he would have to stop him before that.

He just had to find him first.

* * *

It wouldn't be too hard to find Rorschach he was still in the room where he'd been tied up, ready to beat the tar out of Giovanni whom he'd rushed at. The mobster had seen him coming and moved out of his way to avoid being hit. That only gave him a little more time because Rorschach was not going to give up on teaching him a lesson so easily.

When Rorschach came at him again he broke into a run, grabbing the door handle and opening it before rushing out of the room and down the hall with the masked vigilante hot on his heels.

Rorschach wouldn't let up on the guy either, he would continue to chase him for as long as it too. This disgusting monster was going to be forced to feel the pain he'd inflicted on that family until Rorschach chose t end it for him in the most painful way possible. This was going to end today and Alice would not have to live the rest of her life looking over her shoulder.

He might have failed to save one child but this time he was going to ensure the child could grow up.

Today, your hold over this city ends. I hope you already have a cemetery plot and tombstone picked out.

As he chased the man he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A person that looked a lot like Daniel had stepped into the hall. That would have given him pause in any other situation but he was focused on his mission and ran right past him without even a glance in his friend's direction.

Daniel wasn't important at the moment and he could always ask him how and why he was in the house after he took care of this scumbag.

Daniel had been looking for Rorschach when the mob boss had run past him followed by his friend. He'd paused, eyes widening as the two continued down the hall, well aware Rorschach hadn't even given him a second thought. He knew his friend had something else on his mind, and Daniel knew exactly what it was. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

He was going to kill the man. Daniel could not let that happen.

The former Nite Owl took off after him. "Rorschach, wait!" he called to the other man. "Whatever you're planning on doing, don't!"

But the masked man was ignoring him. Instead of even acknowledging his friend he quickened his pace, closing the gap between himself and his target. Daniel should have known this would happen and also sped up.

He had to catch up with Rorschach before Rorschach reached the man. If he could even catch up with him. Rorschach was pretty fast for somebody so short. It must be due to him still being in shape, unlike Daniel who'd practically let himself go since he'd retired from being a costumed hero.

 _Maybe I should take up jogging in the park,_ he thought, huffing and puffing as he ran. _It couldn't hurt._

First things first though.

* * *

Rorschach was aware Daniel was chasing after him and he had a pretty good idea why. He ignored him though, knowing the man would just try to keep him from doing what his friend considered unlawful. Nite Owl would never understand that removing scum was better than allowing them to live, especially monsters like Giovanni Fiorina who would just get a light sentence if any at all. He would be doing the general population removing this man from the land of the living.

Nobody was going to stop him and that included Daniel Dreiberg.

He was catching up with the mobster now. It was time to end this. Throwing himself forward he tackled the man to the floor, landing on top of him and immediately jamming his knee into his spine to prevent him from getting up again as he grabbed his right arm and yanked it behind him.

As he did this he could sense Daniel had caught up with him and had come to a completed stop. He could also hear him puffing like a train he couldn't help himself from feeling disgusted by the sound. What a pathetic tub of lard Nite Owl had become.

"Rorschach-" he began.

"No, don't even start Daniel," he cut him off. "I don't want to hear it."

"But-"

"No!"

Daniel fell silent but he could still feel the man's eyes on him, watching him and judging.

Let him judge. Daniel had always been soft anyway. He never had what it took to make the tough decisions. It was just how it was. He was just going to have to deal with it. Rorschach wasn't like him and didn't want to be like him. That was why he'd rolled over and stopped fighting crime while Rorschach refused to comply. Somebody had to take out the trash after all.

Giovanni Fiorina was trash and it was time to put him out with the rest of it.

"If you do this you will be just as bad as him." Daniel said, unable to hold himself back any longer.

Rorschach turned to look back at him, the ink on his mask moving into a rather unsettling pattern. Was nite owl being serious?! Did he even know anything about the monster on the floor? Or did he simply make such an outrageous claim because Rorschach was going to kill the man?

Probably the latter. Daniel seemed to be ignorant on why he did such things. Wouldn't surprise him in the least.

Unfortunately Daniel had distracted Rorschach long enough for the mob boss to to be able to free himself. When he felt the man's grip loosen he jerked sideways knocking the masked vigilante off of him and then scrambling to his feet and running away. Rorschach shot the former Nite Owl an accusatory look.

"Did that on purpose," he stated.

Daniel didn't argue with him there wasn't a point.

Rorschach got up off the floor., still clearly unhappy about what had just happened. He didn't bother trying to chase him down again, Daniel would never let him and he was probably far away by now. If he wanted to deal with the man he would have to do it later when the former Nite Owl wasn't around to see him do it.

"Happy now?" he asked him. Before Daniel could respond he said. "Now that you're here might as well help me find the girl."

"Where is she?" he asked him.

"Told her to hide till this was over," he said. "Come on."

Rorschach passed by him, hands his his pockets and his posture rigid. Daniel followed him but kept his distance. He could tell his friend was making an effort to keep from exploding so he decided not to antagonize him. At least now he had his mind on something else, finding the girl which had been the reason for this entire misadventure to begin with.

Daniel hoped they found her soon, he just wanted to leave this place and go home before the authorities came and made things worse.

* * *

Alice was beginning to think Rorschach had forgotten about her. It had been so long since she'd hidden in the crawlspace.

 _Maybe he didn't forget at all. Maybe he's dead and won't be coming for me. I'm going to be stuck in this place for the rest of my life and die in this hole, waiting for him._

She started crying as the horrible thought ran rampant in her mind. I'm going to is going to save me. nobody cares about me. Mommy. Daddy. I want you to be alive again and save me!

Just when she was about to give up all hope her ears picked up the sound of a voice calling for her. "Alice!"

Alice lifted her head, listening carefully. She couldn't be sure, but the voice sounded like Rorschach. She heard it again, this time closer.

"Alice! Alice Blake!"

It was Rorschach! He was alive and he hadn't forgotten about her after all!

Relief washed over her and she quickly climbed out of the crawlspace, rushing out of the bathroom and running straight toward that voice. Then she saw him and nothing else mattered. She sprinted toward him, jumping right at him and wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

"You came for me!" she exclaimed. 'You didn't forget about me!"

Rorschach reaching down and patted the girl on the head, letting her hug him without protest. "Promised I would," he reminded her. "Don't break promises."

Daniel watched this without a single word, though it surprised him that Rorschach was actually allowing somebody to touch him. This girl was be something special if he was letting her do so. He wondered how things led up to that but decided not to ask about it. Rorschach wouldn't tell him anyway, he might even deny the whole thing.

Oh well.

After a few more moments he cleared his throat to get their attention. Rorschach stiffened as if he'd just remembered Daniel was with him and turned his head to look at him.

"I don't mean to interrupt but I think we should get out of here," Daniel said. "Before the police arrive to investigate the little,, car accident in the front of the house."

"Right." Rorschach said. he looked down at the girl. "Alice, we have to leave now."

'Okay..." she agreed all too happy to do so.

Rorschach took her hand as he turned back to nite owl. "let's go. Pointless to linger."

Daniel nodded.

They got out of there.

 _A/N_

 _I have no idea what to do next._


	15. Author's Note

Okay everyone who has read and enjoyed my watchmen fanfiction I apologize for not updating in forever. truth be told the story has gone through the entire process and I don't know how to continue it. I guess it just ends here, I am so sorry. I will try to get an epilogue out to wrap things up. Once again I'm sorry. If you all have ideas on how to end the story feel free to post them in the feedback section. Thanks again everyone and I'm glad you enjoyed the story.


End file.
